FIRST OFF . . .

The federal requirement that a television station must give “equal time” to opposing candidates if one of its newscasters runs for office was upheld Tuesday by Washington’s U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The ruling came in the case of KOVR-TV reporter William Branch in Sacramento, who dropped out of a 1984 town council race when station officials told him that he would have to take a leave of absence because they would not provide his opponents equal time as required by a 1982 law. The station estimated it would have had to offer 33 hours of response time to other candidates. Writing the 3-0 decision, Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork said, “Nobody has ever thought that a candidate has a right to run for office and at the same time to avoid all personal sacrifice.”