9th Circ. Okays Public Television Accepting Political Ads

In a 49-page decision, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled 2-1 to overturn a federal law banning public television stations from accepting public issue and political advertising.

In Minority Television Project, Inc. v. FCC (Case No. 09-17311), the appeals court reversed the trial court, holding that the federal law restriction was unconstitutional. The FCC fined San-Francisco based KMTP-TV $10,000 for airing paid promotional messages from for-profit companies in violation of 47 U.S.C. sec. 399(b). The statute bars public broadcasters from being compensated for messages for (1) for-profit cos., (2) that express personal views and (3) political messages supporting candidates.

The Ninth Circuit upheld the proscription regarding for-profit companies (and therefore, the $10k fine), but found the law's remaining provisions violative of the First Amendment.

FCC Seeks Online Repository for Local TV Political Ad Data

Logo of the United States Federal Communications Commission, used on their website and some publications since the early 2000s. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)At their April 27 meeting, FCC Commissioners are expected to push for regulations requiring local television stations to submit data to a central Website about political advertising that they air, the New York Times reports.

Stations already compile such information, which documents programming and cash outlay on political ads, but object to the FCC plan, which they argue would be financially onerous and of little use to the public. The agency and advocates of the plan, however, claim transparency regarding political ads will increase and members of the public will have easier access to such data if it is warehoused online at one site. The FCC contends stations would spend under $1,000 to upload the data and would ultimately realize a savings in storage and printing costs.

FCC Seeks More Transparency in Broadcast Political Ads

Image via WikipediaAdvertising Age reports that FCC commissioners last week stopped thinking about Janet Jackson's bare breast long enough to approve a measure that would require broadcasters of political ads to post online data including the names of the candidates supported in the ads, the cost, time and placement of the commericals and the name of the party requesting the ads and their reason for airing the ads.

The FCC proposal, aimed at increasing transparency regarding independent groups behind many political ads, will appear in the Federal Register in the coming weeks, where public comments will be solicited for 30 days, leading to the final version of the regulations. The National Association of Broadcasters has voiced concern about the proposed FCC rule and state broadcasters have gone further, urging the federal government to shoulder the compliance costs that they estimate would be $14 million annually after an initial $24 million outlay.

Television stations presently maintain the information in paper files that the FCC wants posted on the Internet.