RNC Postpones Opening Of GOP Convention

Bowing to the inevitability of Gustav's havoc and sensitive to appearance, the Republican National Committee has canceled first day festivities. Patrick Ruffini suggests (via Twitter) that "Media should have to give equal time."

I'm not a lawyer, but I don't think convention coverage is a "equal time" candidate. Political conventions are "news events" ... even more so than a political debate, and debates are not covered by the equal time rule.

A note on the Fairness Doctrine, emphasis added:

[I]n the spring of 1987, both houses of Congress voted to put the fairness doctrine into law--a statutory fairness doctrine which the FCC would have to enforce, like it or not. But President Reagan, in keeping with his deregulatory efforts and his long-standing favor of keeping government out of the affairs of business, vetoed the legislation. There were insufficient votes to override the veto. Congressional efforts to make the doctrine into law surfaced again during the Bush administration. As before, the legislation was vetoed, this time by Bush.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the pressure for modifying the convention script came from its presumptive nominee, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ): "This is a time when we have to do away with our party politics and we have to act as Americans." McCain has been critical of the Bush Administration and its handling of Hurricane Katrina: "Never again will a disaster of this nature be handled in the terrible and disgraceful way that it was handled."