Politics: California Insanity

The Post's TV column points out that broadcast stations in California (or neighboring states broadcasting to a lot of Californios) have to limit their presentations of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gary Coleman and Don "Father Guido Sarducci" Novello related programming. As Lisa de Moraes reports:

Any airing by a broadcast station of "Junior" or rerun of a "Saturday Night Live" episode featuring Don Novello as Father Guido Sarducci would trigger the Federal Communication Commission's rule that allows other candidates to demand equal time, the Associated Press notes.

Also limited would be glamorous but vacuous programming like "Entertainment Tonight" and "Access Hollywood:"

Cable channels are not covered by the FCC regulation. But in the past, the FCC has ruled that shows like "Entertainment Tonight" are news shows and therefore subject to the rule because, let's face it, a lot of people get their news from "Access Hollywood." Like the suits at NBC News, who looked to "Access Hollywood" anchor Pat O'Brien to conduct the probing "Dateline" interview of Ben Affleck and J. Lo right before the debut of their flick "Gigli."

And speaking of de Moraes, read Jack Shafer's Pressbox column on how good Lisa de Moraes is about skewering her subject matter. It's quite enjoyable.