A surprise appearance from him Kamala Harris could have galvanized this week’s episode of Saturday Night Livebut it may also have landed him in hot water. According to a commissioner with Federal Communications Commissionthe sketch — in which Maya Rudolphsatirical portrayal of the Democratic presidential nominee standing hand in hand with Vice President Kamala Harris — was a violation of the agency’s equal time rules, which require licensed broadcasters to give all major candidates a platform. , not just the candidate chosen by the broadcaster.

The foul cry came from the FCC’s former general counsel Brendan Carrwho was nominated by both presidents Joe Biden and then-President Donald Trump five-member committee. Post on X (formerly of Twitter), a self-described senior Republican on the committee wrote that SNL The cold opening “is a clear and egregious effort to evade the FCC’s equal time rule.”

“The purpose of the rule is to prevent precisely this type of biased and partisan conduct — a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert influence over a candidate on the eve of an election,” Carr wrote of the draft, continuing, “Unless that the broadcaster offered Equal Time to other qualifying campaigns.”

This is not the first time Saturday Night Live raised eyebrows about the FCC with an election-eve appearance. On November 1, 2008, then-Republican presidential candidate John McCain appeared on SNL in the show’s cold open and again during “Weekend Update.” That time close to the election was enough for spurring thoughts that democrat candidate Barack Obama should have claimed a comparable amount of screen time from NBC. (The then-Senator did not and, spoiler alert, won the election anyway.)

The show has a rich history of presidential candidates appearing as themselves, including Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clintonand of course Donald Trumpwhose turn since 2015 as host would have involved consultations with his bodyguard about whether or not certain sketches were funny. That same year, former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, who had been appointed to his position by Obama, promised that to firmly apply the equal time rules during the 2016 presidential election.

The rules, which originated with the Radio Act of 1927, but have been adapted and amended through the 1960srequire “any licensee of a broadcasting station who permits any person who is a legally qualified candidate for any public office to use a broadcasting station to give equal opportunity to all other such candidates for that office in using to such a broadcasting station.”

It’s a rule that has drawn particular attention as influence on public opinion has shifted from radio and TV to social media. The FCC currently has no jurisdiction when it comes to powerful platforms such as Meta and X (formerly Twitter), the latter having — in words of New York Times— has been transformed into a reflection of the owner Elon Muskhis personal views in the months leading up to the election. It’s worth noting that Carr has been a defender of Musk, announcing in April that he opposes efforts to “weaponize the government” against the far-right mogul.

Conformable TO New York Timessentiment and misinformation spread on those non-FCC-regulated platforms are responsible for a remarkable increase in xenophobia and hate speech. Meanwhile, the FCC is here to fight back real enemy: comedy stores like SNL and Jimmy Kimmel Livewhich was fined $395,000 in 2019, after using a simulated Emergency Alert System tone to punctuate a monologue joke, another shocking violation of clearly society-saving agency policies.