So I was watching some local unknown Senate candidate on TV the other day, and as is so often the case, the topic of campaign financing came up. And this got me thinking. Let me present the following scenario to you:
Let’s say you are a candidate for president of the United States. And you are of course running around raising money like crazy. And what do you spend that money on? Well, some of it goes for staff, offices, and a private jet. But an awful lot of it goes to buying time on commercial television stations to run advertisements for yourself.
Now we all know about, and are sick of hearing about, the corrupting influence of campaign contributions. But here’s another tack on it:
Let’s say that I am a local television station in Iowa or New Hampshire. Of course, when election season comes around, I am licking my chops, because I’m about to sell a whole lot of primetime ad time to the various candidates like yourself. BUT and yes this is a really big BUT . . . what if I am running editorials on the news that criticize you and your positions? What if I am giving a lot of air time to your competitors, especially dark horse unknown candidates who have no money yet might draw some of your support away? Might that influence you to perhaps buy your ad time on the other two network affiliates across town, and leave me in the dust? And worse, might I then adjust my news content in regard to how it might attract or repel that big influx of your campaign ad dollars?
Journalistic ethics are nice to talk about at cocktail parties, but now we are talking about hard cash. I frankly find it impossible to believe that the desire to attract the most campaign ad time money is not being thought about in the editorial departments of TV stations across the country. At the very least, at the top of their news hours, local stations should admit that their station is taking money directly from these campaigns, and perhaps they should even recuse themselves from reporting on the campaigns, since they are incapable of being providing objective information.
© Justin Locke
