BUMPING AL
Channel 20 viewers who expected to see Rev. Al Sharpton hosting “Saturday
Night Live” on Dec. 6 instead were treated to a rerun of the show, a decision
WICS-TV general manager Jack Connors attributes to the station’s unwillingness
to give equal time to other Democratic presidential candidates. WICS wasn’t
the only NBC affiliate to bump the Rev. — all of Sinclair Broadcasting’s other
NBC stations made a similar call, as well as all four NBC affiliates in Iowa
and Gannett’s St. Louis station. In all, nearly 15 percent of NBC’s 230 affiliates
declined to air the show.
If a candidate is on the ballot in at least 10 states, he’s deemed a national
candidate, triggering the Federal Communications Commission’s equal-time provision.
Sharpton hasn’t made it on 10 ballots yet, but Connors says he’s close — and
the GM says he wasn’t ready to “give away an hour-and-a-half to every other
Democratic candidate.”
What’s unusual is other Democratic candidates have appeared on NBC entertainment
programming, including U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt
(D-Mo.), who both appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” But Connors
says Leno’s program, as an interview program, “is considered quasi-news programming.”
Thanks to WICS, viewers missed Sharpton’s impression of soul singer James
Brown. They also didn’t see regulars Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon tweaking cities
where affiliates passed on Sharpton, including Des Moines, Iowa, which they
described as “Snoozeville, USA.”
Connors says he’s fielded some questions from viewers, but no complaints.
BASIC ED
Ralph Martire, a leading advocate for education-funding reform, is
scheduled to speak to Springfield’s Unity for Our Community on Saturday, Dec.
13. Martire is executive director of the Chicago-based Center for Tax and Budget
Accountability, which says many Illinois students are denied a quality education
because schools are forced to rely on property taxes to fund operations. State
government, the group argues, should step in. The Unity meeting starts at 9
a.m. at Union Baptist Church, 1405 E. Monroe St.
This article appears in Dec 11-17, 2003.
