NBC's Jay Leno Seen Breaking the Law with the Governor?

While LAist hasn't really made up our mind yet who we're voting for in the Governor's race, it looks like Jay Leno has.

In an bizarre move, the Tonight Show invited Governor Schwarzenegger on the air yesterday as a guest on the show -- in the middle of a close race. But for some reason they didn't invite the Democratic candidate Phil Angelides, which has prompted Angelides' team to begin an online protest, demanding equal time.

Not only does LAist agree that the late night NBC talk show, based in LA, owes it to Mr. Angelides, but we believe that the other candidates running for the top seat also deserve just as much time as Arnold got. And in the same fashion: alone with Jay during the same part of the show. It's only fair.

Peter Camejo, who was nominated by the California Green Party, Art Olivier of the California Libertarian Party, Janice Jordan from the Peace and Freedom Party, and Edward Noonan from the American Independent Party, all deserve equal treatment by Jay and equal time.

Not only that, but since the following Californians filed a statement of intent with the Secretary of State to be allowed as write-in candidates, we believe that they should also get the exact same treatment as the Governator got: Mary Carey (Independent), George Fellows (Independent), James Harris (Socialist Workers), Eric "Moose" Mahoney (Independent), Aaron Proctor (Independent), Daniel Sage (Independent), Elisha Shapiro (Nihilist Party).

If the "Tonight Show" does not allow all of these official candidates on the show in exactly the same manner that the incumbent was allowed on the air, aired to all California voters on free broadcast network television, LAist believes that Jay Leno, "The Tonight Show", and NBC have a bias towards Mr. Schwarzenegger, and are willing to give him, and only him, valuable and free tv time on the most popular late night show on television.

We also believe that if they don't give all of these candidates the same air time and equal treatment that NBC is in violation of the law. Equal treatment should include announcing that each of these candidates will appear on the show the same way that NBC announced Arnold's appearance -- through tv spots that occured nationwide during other NBC shows.

If NBC tries to group each of these candidates together in some stupid comedy bit, and doesn't allow each of them to have just as much time as the Governor got -- with each of them sitting alone in the prime seat right next to Jay -- we will believe that NBC and Jay Leno have an agenda against those other candidates, and we will also believe that NBC and Jay Leno don't believe in the basic American standard that each candidate is just as important as the next, and all deserve to be treated with the same respect.

As it stands right now, it appears that Jay Leno and NBC only believe that the Republican candidate deserves to be seen on tv. We look forward to seeing this corrected.

Posted by Tony Pierce