Media bias isn't unusual. After watching the unprecedented honeymoon period granted to Kamala Harris after Joe Biden stepped out of the race, it's no surprise that the bulk of the American press is in the tank for Harris. It is, however, a bit more surprising to see the media pushing the boundaries of legality in its cheerleading for Harris.

NBC announced a last-second surprise appearance of Kamala Harris on "Saturday Night Live." The Harris appearance was a skit where she gave herself a pep talk with Maya Rudolph, who has played Harris with wide acclaim. All the liberals at NBC, MSNBC, and the related properties cheered themselves on in this endeavor.

After airing on Saturday night, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr blasted the show and network, claiming it was a "clear and blatant" effort to evade "equal time laws." Under the law, networks holding a license, like T.V. networks, have to offer equal time to opposing candidates at the same rate.

For example, if a station cuts a deal for advertising space with a Republican candidate, it must offer the same kind of deal to a Democratic candidate. If you're selling a 30-second ad spot to one candidate for a million dollars, the other candidates have to get the same deal. This is a way to level the playing field for all involved and ensure all political candidates get a fair shot.

Referring to Harris's performance, Carr said, "This is a clear and blatant effort to evade the FCC's Equal Time rule. The purpose of the rule is to avoid exactly this type of biased and partisan conduct—a licensed broadcaster using the public airwaves to exert its influence for one candidate on the eve of an election."

NBC is well aware of these rules. Earlier in October, Lorne Michaels even told The Hollywood Reporter he had no plans on inviting Trump or Harris onto SNL because of these rules. Michaels said, "You can't bring the actual people who are running on because of election laws and the equal time provisions ... You can't have the main candidates without having all the candidates, and there are lots of minor candidates that are only on the ballot in, like, three states and that becomes really complicated."

While Carr experienced blowback from Democrats for pointing out the obvious, NBC ended up filing two letters to the FCC admitting that they'd given free time to not only Kamala Harris but Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine.

NBC realized it had created a mess. The Hollywood Reporter says that NBC gave Donald Trump some airtime during a Sunday NASCAR race. Because the Harris spot on SNL was free, NBC had to offer the NASCAR spot to Trump for free. However, Trump didn't use all the time that Harris used on SNL, so it's unclear at this stage whether NBC is off the hook.

Equally unclear is what NBC is doing to provide airtime to other candidates in the race. Outside Donald Trump, they now have to offer similar time to other candidates like the Green and Libertarian parties. How far down the rabbit hole do we go? It's unclear. But they certainly have a right to demand that time from NBC.

The only saving grace for NBC is that they don't have to offer the same program to these candidates. SNL can retain what it did with Harris, but how it fulfills obligations for other candidates can shift. The point is that they're on the hook because they wanted to give air time to Harris on SNL.

But SNL's last-second push for Harris raises other issues. In his criticism of NBC, FCC Commissioner Carr also pointed out that doing this in the final week of a campaign makes it harder, if not impossible, for other campaigns to seek equal treatment. Normally, campaigns get a seven-day notice period, but because the election is on Tuesday, that's very clearly impossible.

That brings back Carr's central criticism of NBC: the entire point of timing this media hit for Harris at the absolute last second was purposely designed to slam the door on other candidates. NBC has to offer this to others, but since they've timed this to avoid such responsibility, they're undermining the law through their actions.

Again, NBC knew this all along. Lorne Michaels said he had no plans to bring any of the candidates on because of the can of worms it opened. Someone at NBC overruled that decision, seeking to tip the scales in favor of Harris.

NBC, like many networks, sheds a lot of tears over democracy. But when forced to support actual democracy, which involves other people's choices, they've done everything possible to undermine it. It turns out the Peacock is a lot of show, but little substance. They're as partisan as the Democratic Party on the subject.