Fred Thompson's spots on Law and Order pay dividends, pose problems?

by James Oliphant

Right now, where Fred Thompson’s fictional TV existence is concerned, there’s law, but not that much order.

As most of America knows, for the last five years, Thompson has played district attorney Arthur Branch on Law & Order as well as on its more sordid siblings such as Special Victims Unit and Criminal Intent. He left the show after last season, ostensibly to launch his now-official bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

Prior to last week, Thompson could be seen in reruns airing on NBC, a broadcast network, and the cable networks TNT and USA. The distinction between broadcast and cable is crucial.

Under regulations set by the Federal Communications Commission, broadcast networks must provide equal time to presidential candidates. That’s probably why NBC yanked episodes featuring Fred from its schedule after he officially announced his run. It was either that or make room for Dennis Kucinich: Special Vegan Unit.

But TNT and USA could be different cases. Or maybe not.

Where else would Thompson, a star of NBC's Law and Order, utter his first formal words about running for president than on NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno? NBC photos via AP

What’s undisputed is that both networks, especially TNT, deliver Thompson into living rooms with the frequency of pizza to college dormitories. (TNT alone will show 10 episodes of the original series between 6 p.m. Wednesday and 7 p.m. today.)

Neither net has shown any inkling of backing off.

Whether the equal-time rules apply to cable networks has never been ruled upon by the FCC, says David Oxenford, a communications lawyer in Washington. “Cable is really a different animal,” he says.

And some experts believe that if the Giuliani or Romney campaigns are so inclined, they could make a go of it. “My guess --and it is that-- is that the FCC staff will find that the cable repeats of Law & Order involving candidate Thompson are subject to the equal opportunities requirement,” says Richard Wiley, a former FCC chairman considered by many to be the dean of communications law in D.C.

In the past, cable networks have played it safe with other media-saturated candidates such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, yanking movies such as Terminator and The Last Action Hero off the schedule for the duration of the campaign. (Okay, so no one airs the second film anyway.)

The legal quagmire doesn’t end there, though. Other observers suggest NBC truly pulled Law & Order because it feared a Federal Election Commission rule that says corporations can’t provide in-kind donations to political campaigns. In that sense, NBC, which is owned by General Electric, was giving Thompson free publicity. That hasn’t been tested in court either.

Spokesmen for the campaigns of Rudolph Giuliani and Mitt Romney say the issue isn’t on their radar. (Although if they have cable, Thompson’s certainly on their TV screens -- and probably right this very moment.) They have no plans to bring a complaint.

But if Thompson roars ahead in the polls, anything could happen. One communications professor would recommend against it, however: “The TNT ratings for these old shows are certainly quite low and such a formal challenge to have the shows removed would give the matter -- and Fred Thompson -- more attention than if they just let the issue sit,” says Jeffrey McCall of DePauw University.

And, he adds, “Such a move by a Thompson opponent puts that opponent in the rhetorical position of a whiner who can't counter Thompson's entertainment appearances with public, issue-based rhetoric of their own.”

Well, yes, “issue-based rhetoric” is second nature for any veteran stumper. But could Mitt or Rudy toss off an acerbic, penetrating bon mot in the same manner as Thompson does in the inescapable, comforting-yet-troubling coda that comes with every L & O episode? And more importantly, could they do it while also slinging a topcoat over one arm, shutting off the light, and closing their office door?

There must be some room for that kind of skills competition in the long campaign ahead, if only to provide an innovative debate format amid a string of endless -- for want of a better word – reruns.