Arnold’s movies a victim of his campaign
by Doc on Aug.13, 2003, under Television
Don’t expect to see The Terminator on broadcast TV for a while – or True Lies, or any of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s other movies, at least in California. Arnie’s advisors told the press that Federal “equal time” rules apply, and if a station airs one of his movies, ALL of his opponents can claim equal time for free, and that’s a lot of time – nearly 250 registered candidates. The law definitely applies to broadcast stations, and it is known that cable channels are exempt, but there is a apparently grey area with cable providers like Time Warner and Comcast carrying an Arnie movie on their system from one of the cable channels. Ironically this happened before – in 1973, when Star Trek alum George Takei ran for LA City Council. A local station aired a rerun of Star Trek, and it cost them an entire evening of programming to give equal time to 14 candidates.
Update 8/19: Sure enough, the SCI FI Channel announced it is postponing 3 previously-scheduled Schwarzenegger films until after the recall election.