By: Jason EasleyJune 9, 2012
At the behest of corporate broadcasters, a single subcommittee vote
by House Republicans killed an FCC disclosure guideline and strengthened
the role of secret money in American politics.
The new FCC rule would have required broadcasters to post online who
is buying advertising for political candidates. Currently, the only way
those records can be inspected is by requesting to inspect them in
person at each television station. By making the records accessable to
all this new rule would have blown the veil of secrecy off the Citizens
United based spending, which meant that Republicans had to kill it as
soon as possible.
Republicans accomplished their goal by attaching a rider on to the FCC’s budget that
prohibited them from spending any funds on disclosure rules.
The intrigue in this story comes from who was behind the effort to
kill the new FCC rule. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB)
was behind the push to kill the new rules. Last month the
NAB filed a lawsuit against the FCC claiming
that the new rules were, “arbitrary, capricious, in excess of the
commission’s statutory authority, inconsistent with the First Amendment,
and otherwise not in accordance with the law.”
The FCC argued that, “The public file rules are a common-sense update
by the FCC to move from paper to online access to public information in
the digital age. The rules are consistent with Congress’s directive to
ensure public availability while providing cost-savings for
broadcasters."
Surprise!!! The corporate media doesn’t want you to know how much money they are making off of the Citizens United ruling.
Media reform advocates
Free Press
summed up the situation, "Some members of Congress, working at the
behest of the broadcast industry, want to keep the public in the dark.
The FCC's online political file rules will shine a brighter light on the
political ads that have inundated local airwaves this year.
Broadcasters spent nearly $14 million on lobbyists in 2011. Now they’re
spending millions more on campaign contributions to buy support from
some members of Congress — but that's a drop in the bucket compared to
the over $3 billion in political ad revenues that television stations
stand to pull in this election cycle…It's clear that the broadcast
industry is pulling out all the stops to bury information about
political ad spending on the public airwaves. What's more appalling is
that some elected officials are willing to help them do it."
House Committee chairman
Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY) unbelievably argued
that, “television station fiscal matters are private and should be kept
private.” The Republican position is that even when broadcasters are
using public airwaves, the American people have no right to know who is
paying for the political ads that they are seeing.
It should be crystal clear now why House and Senate Democrats who are
advocating for disclosure can’t get their message on television.
Corporate broadcasters are spending millions of dollars to keep the
American people in the dark about the impact of Citizens United. With
the exception of
Sen. Bernie Sanders sneaking in his plea for disclosure, broadcasters limit their discussion of Citizens United to its impact on elections.
However, the sordid story of the demise of the FCC disclosure rule
reveals that there is a third player at the table with corporations and
Republicans. America’s broadcasters have skin in the game, and if their
choice is between an informed public and billions in profit, the
broadcasters are going to sell out the American people and stand by
their cash.
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