More free TV for candidates?
By Bob Bernick Jr.
Deseret News political editor
Since the nation's TV stations and networks may make billions of dollars in profits using free public airways, the least broadcasters can do is give two hours a week of free time to congressional candidates, advocates of a free-air-time campaign say.
A communications professor, former congresswoman, national free-time advocate and KSL-TV's president discussed the current free-time proposal during a debate this past week at the University of Utah's Hinckley Institute of Politics. The issue is being pushed by the Free Air Time Campaign (FATC), former network anchor Walter Cronkite and the sponsors of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law.KSL's Richard Mecham says he sympathizes with the concern over America's dwindling interest in politics and campaigns. But the cost of TV political commercials is not the problem. And he says the proposed free-time/voucher-tax system is unfair and could cause less-profitable TV stations to go out of business. FATC has a two-prong approach to require local stations to provide two hours per week for at least four weeks before an election free to candidates. Local stations would decide how that air time would be used, either through debates, speeches, panel discussions or other means, said Paul Taylor, national president of the Alliance for Better Campaigns, which backs FATC.
In addition, for the privilege of using public airways for free, stations would pay a new 0.5 percent gross receipts tax, an "insignificant" percent considering TV stations' historic huge profit margins, Taylor said. The estimated $750 million the tax would raise over a two-year election cycle would be given as vouchers to congressional candidates and political parties. The candidates and parties would then use those vouchers to "buy" TV ad time.
Mecham said the proposed tax would cost KSL-TV $500,000 a year. "That's not insignificant to us," he said.
Taylor cited statistic after statistic on how TV political ad costs have escalated the past 20 years, how incumbent lawmakers outspend their challengers 3-to-1 and how incumbent U.S. House members win re-election 98 percent of the time.Our political finance system is indeed sick, agreed former 2nd Congressional District Rep. Karen Shepherd, a Democrat who served in the early 1990s. "We're in serious trouble" with so few Americans voting nowadays and so little coverage of political campaigns, she said.
But Mecham, president of KSL Broadcast Group, said TV stations and the ads they sell to candidates are not the reason for poor political health.He cited Utah's primary election in June and this year's closed Republican primary as other reasons for low voter turnout.
When Utah's slumping economy last year dropped $25 million to $30 million out of the local TV ad market revenues, KSL didn't cut back on its news or sports coverage despite $5 million less in revenue because the viewing public expected to see the same public affairs commitment, he said.
TV ads cost most serious U.S. House campaigns between 40 percent and 50 percent of their campaign budget, Taylor and Mecham agreed.
But Mecham asked what FATC is going to do about the rising costs of other campaign expenses. "Are you going to expect AT&T to give your campaign discounted or free cell time? Ask Hilton Hotels to give you discounted or free room rates?"
No, said Taylor. AT&T and Hilton aren't making billions of dollars a year in profit using the public airways, he said.
American elections, especially congressional elections, are a closed system, said Taylor, "choked off" by the huge amounts of money needed to win a U.S. House or Senate race. And most of that money is used for TV advertising, Taylor said.
"The TV industry had $64 billion in ad revenues in 2000, and they didn't pay a cent for the use of the public airways," he said. "In 1968, the average sound bite of a presidential candidate (on the nightly network news) was 43 seconds, now it is 7.5 seconds. You can't communicate like that. You can't even get a sentence out."
The average local TV broadcast today gives 45 seconds a night of political/candidate coverage just before an election, Taylor said.
"This is not too much to ask. We need to break this cycle" of apathy in political coverage, and bring the public back into the political debate, he said.
