Dateline: Dancer

Rick Dancer, longtime KEZI anchor, spent Sunday preparing for a story about a Republican entering the race for Secretary of State. He wrote the lead-in and prepared himself for the candidate's interview.

Except the anchor ended up being the candidate.

Dancer’s three minute spot at the top of the newscast focused attention on the intersection of journalism and politics, as well as FCC rules about equal-time requirements.

Scott Chambers, president of Chambers Communications which owns the station, claimed the decision to have Dancer announce his campaign was influenced by the amount of time the journalist had been on-air.

"After 20 years in the market, with the popularity that research has shown that he had, we needed a public way to tell the viewer where he went," Chambers told the AP.

For his part, Dancer asserted that no one else would get to beat him to the official announcement.

“It’s a big story,” Dancer told the Register-Guard, “because, number one, it’s the first Republican out (in the race). Number two, it’s a pretty well-known guy in this community. I can’t go anywhere without people coming up and saying to me, ‘Hey Rick, I’m going to vote for you.’ It was a big, lead story. That’s what the judgment was.”

FCC rules stipulate equal air time for political candidates. The rules grant exceptions, including one that applies to news interviews.

Most newscasts, however, do not include a candidate reporting on himself.

Violations are only investigated if a complaint is filed, and as of yet, none of the four Democrats running for the Secretary of State nomination have taken that step.