“INVOKE P!”

This is 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.… https://t.co/LliZF0po9t

— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) November 3, 2024

Yeah, about that:

The FCC, however, has not "received a complaint from any interested parties," Jonathan S. Uriarte, the commission's director of strategic communications/policy advisor, wrote in a statement to Entertainment Weekly.

So, the FCC is not doing anything.

Readers of a certain age (hem hem) will remember when Trump was President during Covid, and being roundly harangued from all corners to use the Defense Production Act to procure respirators and other desperately needed medical equipment. In response to this demand he finally tweeted “Invoke P!” When it wasn’t clear what he was doing, he went back on Twitter to clarify:

Invoke “P” means Defense Production Act!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020

Sometime after that, someone apparently explained to him, “That’s not how this works, that’s not how any of this works.” Trump’s tweets were not doing anything.

Brendan Carr is a Trump appointee to the FCC. The nut doesn’t fall far from the tree. The fish rots from the head. Etc., etc. Yes, NBC has filed a notice with the FCC that it will give Trump equal time if he asks for it. Nothing about Carr’s tweet endangers the ability of NBC to continue to function, any more than Trump’s tweet four years ago affected the country’s ability to respond adequately to Covid. This wasn’t even a tempest in a teapot. It was literally a nothing burger.🍔 

The legacy of Trump will be with us for awhile; like the infirmities of age which can nonetheless be driven off by changes in lifestyle. Pretty sure that’s what’s coming.