Fw: [FAIR-L] Media Role Missing from Campaign Finance Coverage

[Guest guest]

This has more to do with sick country than sick buildings, but....

----- Original Message -----

From: " FAIR-L " <FAIR-L@...>

<FAIR-L@...>

Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2001 2:44 PM

Subject: [FAIR-L] Media Role Missing from Campaign Finance Coverage

> FAIR-L

> Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting

> Media analysis, critiques and news reports

>

>

>

>

>

> ACTION ALERT:

> Media Role Missing from Campaign Finance Coverage

>

> March 22, 2001

>

> While the McCain-Feingold campaign finance debate will often dominate

> political news over the next two weeks, one aspect of the story is rarely

> explained to TV viewers: Where does all the money go?

>

> Many media accounts correctly draw the links between the access that big

> money can buy and the political favors that donors come to expect. News

> reports at the beginning of the Senate debate (3/19/01) over

McCain-Feingold

> were often strongly worded: CBS's Bob Schieffer explained that " This money

> is like a narcotic to politicians and they're having a hard time breaking

> the habit, " while NBC's Myers reported the issue as a case of " bigger

> and bigger money buying more and more influence. "

>

> But a significant portion of that money goes straight to the media

> themselves. Estimates of campaign spending in 2000 find that television

> stations took in about $1 billion in advertising revenue. One study of

> political ads found that 839,243 political ads were aired in the top 75

> media markets during the 200 election season-- that's over 10,000 per

market

> (USA Today, 3/21/01).

>

> The media's front-and-center role in campaign finance goes virtually

> unacknowledged on the network news broadcasts. As debate on the Senate

> floor began on March 19, viewers would be hard-pressed to find any

straight

> forward account of how the system actually works. On NBC Nightly News,

> correspondent Myers came close, reporting that opponents of

> McCain-Feingold argue that " this money is needed to buy expensive TV

time. "

>

>

> Newspaper accounts are often more direct-- Washington Post columnist

> Broder (3/20/01) wrote that the truth about who benefits from the current

> system " is suppressed in Senate debate for the same reason it was ignored

on

> the TV talk shows: fear of antagonizing the station owners, who control

what

> gets on the air. "

>

> It's not hard to see why broadcasters would not be interested in

disclosing

> the extraordinary benefits they get from the current political financing

> scheme. Earlier in the month, a report by the Alliance for Better

Campaigns

> accused television stations of gouging advertisers by charging more than

the

> basic rate for political ads. The report generated some newspaper

coverage

> (New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, all 3/6/01), but no

national

> television coverage, according to a search of the Nexis online news

> database.

>

> Broadcasters participate as campaign contributors as well. According to

> data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, big media were big

> soft-money contributors in the 2000 election cycle:

>

> --Time Warner/CNN: $2,004,438

> --Walt Disney/ABC: $1,805,464

> --News Corp./Fox: $787,980

> --Viacom/CBS: $648,170

> --General Electric/NBC: $309,700

>

> This system is known well to journalists and politicians alike. Broadcast

> lobbies like the National Association of Broadcasters are considered among

> the most powerful in Washington, and the mechanics of political campaigns

> are all too familiar to those close to the system. " Today's Senate

> campaigns function as collection agencies for broadcasters, " former

Senator

> Bill Bradley explained in 1991 (Communications & the Law, 3/95). " You

> simply transfer money from contributors to television stations. "

>

> As the issue of campaign finance reform takes center stage, the broadcast

> industry's participation in the scandal demands greater scrutiny.

>

> ACTION: Encourage the broadcast news outlets to investigate the role of

the

> media industry itself in the campaign finance debate. Media companies

have

> an obligation to explain their role as beneficiaries of the current

system.

>

>

> CONTACT:

> NBC Nightly News

> Phone: 212-664-4971 or 202-885-4259

> Fax: 202-362-2009

> mailto:Nightly@...

>

> ABC's World News Tonight

> 47 W. 66 St., New York, NY 10023

> Phone: 212-456-7777

> Fax: 212-456-4297

> mailto:peterjennings@...

>

> CBS Evening News

> Phone: 212-975-3691, 202-457-4385

> Fax: 212-975-1893

> mailto:audsvcs@...

>

>

> As always, please remember that your comments will be more effective if

you

> maintain a polite tone. Please cc fair@... with your correspondence.

>

> For more background, please see:

> --Alliance for Better Campaigns:

> http://www.bettercampaigns.org/

>

> -- " Hidden Culprit in Campaign Finance Scandal: The TV Industry " by Jeff

> Cohen:

> http://www.fair.org/whats-new/tvindustry.html

>

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