People Really Complained to the FCC About Kamala Harris's Cameo on SNL
The FCC released 73 pages of colorful complaints to FOIA Files. Many said NBC violated the equal time rule and demanded that regulators revoke or suspend NBC’s broadcast license.
Welcome back to FOIA Files! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. In keeping with the holiday spirit, I'm serving leftovers. Documents tied to many of the Freedom of Information Act requests I filed during the presidential campaign are still rolling in. Since I'm not inclined to let anything go to waste, let's feast on the carcass of last month’s election. Here's what's on the menu first: complaints I obtained from the Federal Communications Commission related to Vice President Kamala Harris's appearance on Saturday Night Live. Next up: a handful of records from the FBI that I've been sitting on for years about Trump University, which happen to be newsworthy again. If you’re not already getting FOIA Files in your inbox, sign up here.
It was a blip in the news cycle during the presidential campaign, but Harris's surprise SNL appearance on Nov. 2 riled up former President Donald Trump’s base. It also infuriated some Republican officials.
Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, said NBC’s decision to give a political candidate such prime airtime amounted to “a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC’s Equal Time rule.”
“The purpose of the rule is to avoid exactly this type of biased and partisan conduct—a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert its influence for one candidate on the eve of an election,” Carr wrote in a post on X. “Unless the broadcaster offered Equal Time to other qualifying campaigns.”
Republican Senator Marco Rubio called Harris’s cameo a “full-scale assault” to “depress and suppress Republican votes.”
“I hope she laughed on Saturday Night Live, in front of millions of people who heard her laughing for a few minutes, cause that’s probably worth two to three million votes right there,” he said.
Elon Musk also weighed in on X with his own take amplified to 200 million of his followers.
I wondered if all the outrage resulted in any grievances lodged with the FCC. The agency allows consumers to file complaints about the public airwaves it regulates. And since those complaints are subject to FOIA, I saw a prime opportunity to file a records request. FCC requests are among my favorite types of requests because it’s a pretty quick turnaround by the agency.
Last week, the FCC sent me 73 pages of complaints. They’re pretty colorful! Many repeat Carr’s assertion that NBC violated the equal time rule. Others demanded that the FCC revoke or suspend NBC’s broadcast license. Here are a few highlights.
A person in Oklahoma sent the FCC a complaint on Nov. 3 that said NBC’s decision to give Harris a platform “does nothing but fuel the mistrust in media and our election process.”
A person in Goodyear, Arizona believed the FCC should impose a fine on NBC “equal to or exceeding NBC’s parent company Comcast annual profits for 2023 of $37 Billion.”
In a letter, the FCC said the agency “receives many complaints and comments that do not involve violations of the Communications Act or any FCC rule or order. Thus, the existence of a complaint or comment filed against a particular carrier or business entity does not necessarily indicate any wrongdoing by any individuals or business entities named in the complaint or comment.”
Still, by the time the complaints landed at the FCC, NBC had filed an equal time notice with the regulator stating that it had provided Harris one minute and 30 seconds of free air time. Trump’s campaign requested equal air time. That Sunday, Nov. 3, he appeared in a videotaped message at the end of the NASCAR playoff race. He told voters that electing Harris would result in a “depression.”
Trump University
As the maxim goes, what’s old is new again. Now that Trump is the president-elect, a bunch of my old FOIA documents are newly relevant. Before the 2016 election, I filed a joint lawsuit against the FBI with Ryan Shapiro, the executive director of the watchdog group Property of the People.
We requested documents related to dozens of Trump’s businesses that the FBI may have investigated, including Trump University. The for-profit real estate program operated between 2005 and 2010 and, for hefty fees, promised to teach attendees Trump’s secrets to success.
The FBI sent us 29 pages of complaints sent by Trump University students to the bureau, and to websites such as ripoffreport.com between 2007 and 2009.
Attached to the complaints was also an FBI cover sheet that indicated the bureau’s New York office may have looked into potential wire fraud involving the real estate program.
After he won the 2016 election, Trump settled three separate lawsuits for $25 million that called for repayment to about 6,000 students. Now, given his win in last month’s election, those Trump University complaints have resurfaced. That’s because Trump nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi as his (second choice) for US attorney general.
In 2013, Bondi’s office had received numerous complaints from Trump University attendees who claimed they were scammed.
At the time, Bondi said that she was looking into the complaints. Ultimately, though, she declined to pursue any of them. She made the decision shortly after Trump, through his foundation, sent a $25,000 donation to a political action committee connected to Bondi, who was campaigning for a second term. She has publicly said the donation didn’t factor into her decision.
The Trump University complaints and the donation will no doubt come up during Bondi’s confirmation hearing.
Coincidentally, the attorney general in California, where complaints had piled up, also declined to take action against Trump University. Guess who that was. Kamala Harris. She received a donation from Trump as well.
Got a tip for a document you think I should request via FOIA? Send me an email: jleopold15@bloomberg.net or send me a message on Signal: +1-917-623-1908.
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