Eugene Volokh takes a look at the law and concludes that statutory law (this being different from the “fairness doctrine” which was FCC policy and not passed by Congress) prevents NBC from airing episodes of Law & Order that Fred Thompson appears in unless they give equal time to the other candidates.

Volokh is going of judicial interpretations of the “equal time” law, but going on what the law actually says I’m not sure this is a fair interpretation:

If any licensee shall permit any person who is a legally qualified candidate for any public office to use a broadcasting station, he shall afford equal opportunities to all other such candidates for that office in the use of such broadcasting station

Is an actor appearing in a show the broadcast rights of which the station in question owns or leases technically “using” the station?  It seems to me that instead the station is “using” the talents of that actor to make money, right?  As Ace points out:

...if Thompson, appearing not as himself nor making the best case for a Thompson candidacy, shows up for a total of two minutes on a Law & Order, this means that Ron Paul gets to appear as himself and speak words he’s written himself to advance his candidacy, rather than repeating words written for him to serve the plot of a tv show?

What’s particularly absurd about this is that NBC need simply move episodes of Law & Order featuring Thompson to one of their non-broadcast stations (like the USA network, for instance) and this law doesn’t apply.  Because it applies to broadcast licensees, not cable or satellite channels.

But this sort of idiocy is what goes on when the government tries to move in on private industry and dictate what is and is not “fair.”