• by March 15, 2001

(AP) - Broadcasters are being unfairly blamed for the rising cost of candidates' political campaigns, the head of their lobbying group asserted Wednesday.

Edward Fritts, president of the National Association of Broadcasters, said the industry is closely following federal laws governing campaign ads and no stations have been fined for stepping over the line for five years.

The watchdog group, Alliance for Better Campaigns, said this week local TV stations had been "gouging" political candidates by steering them to more expensive time slots. The alliance said between $770 million and $1 billion was spent for political ads in 2000.

"As broadcasters, we reject the overall blanket condemnation that we are responsible for the increase in the cost of political campaigns," Fritts said.

He said spending for congressional candidates' ads in the 2000 elections took up about the same percentage of campaign budgets as in 1992. Figures have been inflated by an influx of spending by third parties and independent candidates, he said.

Paul Taylor, executive director of the alliance, said stations haven't been fined much because disputes with candidates are being mediated before they get that far.

"We were careful not to claim that anyone's breaking the law," he said. "We do claim that the law doesn't work any more."

A report by the alliance noted federal law requires TV stations to offer candidates their cheapest rates for ads. But the report said stations routinely charged about two-thirds more because they couldn't guarantee candidates those ads would stay in desirable time slots unless the candidates paid premium rates.

Dwight Morris of the independent Campaign Study Group said advertising costs are but one factor in rising campaign costs.

"More money is being spent on advertising, but far more is spent on fund-raising, office overhead, travel, consultants," he said. "Everything is going up."