• by Wayne Friedman , October 6, 2005

As if broadcast stations didn't have enough to worry about, now a campaign reform group called the Campaign Legal Center is urging Congress to pass a bill that would levy a fee on broadcasters--all this to help subsidize campaign ads.

The bill would include a voucher program where broadcasters would carry five minutes a night on candidate issues in the 30 days preceding the elections--the so-called "5/30" standard.

The voucher program was proposed in the last Congress by veteran campaign reformers Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.).

The Campaign Legal Center is acting on the recommendations of the Carter/Baker Commission report on Federal Election Reform, which came out recently.

The act would provide matching funds for airtime, up to the first $250 in contributions to House and Senate candidates. The vouchers--to be given to the candidates--would be financed by a fee on broadcasters.

In a press release, Meredith McGehee, director of the Campaign Legal Center's media policy program, said: "The public relies on the airwaves for the information they need to be good citizens. Congress and broadcasters have an obligation to help them get it."

The efforts are intended to get more political content on TV stations. The Carter/Baker Commission has complained about the dearth of political coverage, saying: "broadcasters receive free licenses to operate on our publicly owned airwaves in exchange for a pledge to serve the public interest. At the heart of this public interest obligation is the need to inform the public about the critical issues that will be decided in elections."

Currently, broadcast stations--at least for this year, so far--have seen TV spot advertising revenues down anywhere from 5 percent to 10 percent, depending on the market. This is typical for a non-political advertising season.

In big political campaign years--which include high-spending gubernatorial, senatorial, and presidential races--stations can count on substantially increasing their advertising revenue. Much of that would be taken away, say analysts, if such a bill from the Campaign Legal Center becomes law.