In recent weeks, Scripps News has heard from viewers concerning our coverage of political speeches.
"I watch Scripps News quite a bit, but today I'm a little upset because you have Donald Trump on there. He's been talking for seven minutes during the news broadcast," caller Raymond said. "You're not doing an equal time between the Democrats and the Republicans."
"If you want a neutral audience, you can't pick and choose how much time one guy gets and how much time the other person gets. It has to be an equal amount or don't do it at all for either one," Raymond said.
First, we want to address some common misconceptions about the equal opportunity rule – often called "Equal Time".
It requires all outlets that license federal broadcast airwaves to provide equal access to all qualified candidates for a particular office. If one candidate is offered 3 minutes to speak, their opponents have to be offered the same opportunity, in a comparable time slot.
Candidate appearances in newscasts, news interviews and "on-the-spot" news events aren't subject to this rule – and it would be nearly impossible to follow otherwise.
We do aim for approximately equal coverage of the major candidates across our body of coverage. We also believe there are other ways of achieving balance — such as hearing from experts or everyday Americans impacted by policy.
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How do we choose what to air, and why do we sometimes cut away? It's a question of logistics as well as news value.
Our show "Scripps News on the Scene" takes you to the top stories of the day as they unfold — weekdays at noon eastern. And loyal viewers have probably noticed a lot of news happens during banking hours.
Our goal is to bring you the most newsworthy and interesting live events at any given time. Our journalists are always watching multiple feeds; if they see something noteworthy happening, we may "dump" a feed from our air to bring you a more urgent story.
Here's one example: we brought you both the RNC and DNC — because we see value in hearing about both major parties' platforms and watching the nomination process unfold.
But both candidates and their running mates are also attending campaign events and making stump speeches — up to several times a week. We bring you those when time and scheduling allows, or when we expect a candidate to say something especially new or newsworthy.
When other news breaks — or if a candidate is restating points we've heard before — we sometimes bow out and bring you another story, while continuing to watch the speech for newsworthy developments.
Bringing you the news isn't always just about news priority — it can also be about scheduling, media access, and viewer interest. We do our best — and we love hearing from you when you think we get it right and wrong.
So tell us what's on your mind. Leave us a message 24/7 on our toll-free Scripps News viewer hotline at 1-833-4-SCRIPPS. That’s 1-833-472-7477.
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