IT’s election time – and local TV stations are raking in the dough on political advertising.
And that’s a problem to a good-government group which has started a national campaign to publicize just how much local stations are making from political ads.
The idea is to force stations into giving more free time to political candidates and to cover election issues.
In New York, the No. 1 moneymaker is WNBC/Ch. 4, which grossed $6.8 million between Jan. 1 and July 31 (the latest date information was available).
That makes political advertising one of the station’s biggest ad accounts – right up there with fast-food and automobiles.
WABC/Ch. 7 was second with $5.5 million and WCBS/Ch. 2 with $4.7 million.
Those figures were culled by the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks political-ad spending.
And The Alliance for Better Campaigns is publicizing the ad figures on a new website called greedytv.org.
The site ranks stations all around the country based on how much they took in so far this year in political ads.
New York has three of the top 10 biggest grossing stations.
Greedytv doesn’t have a problem with stations accepting political ad money – provided they offer some political discourse (debates, etc.) to their viewers.
“We’re peeved that while stations are making a lot of money from political ads, they’re not then turning around and providing viewers with a chance to see and hear the candidates talk,” says Paul Taylor, who created greedytv.org.
That’s not so, says Anna Carbonell, spokeswoman for Ch. 4 – which ranks second in the country in political-ad revenue.
“We’re strongly committed to providing broadcast time on all the important political issues within our regularly scheduled news and public affairs programming,” says Carbonell.
Carbonell emphasizes that Ch. 4 aired the first Hillary Clinton-Rick Lazio U.S. Senate debate Sept. 13 – and will air a second Clinton-Lazio debate at a date to be determined.
Ch. 2 will also air a Clinton-Lazio debate on Oct. 8.
“Both WCBS and CBS Television continue to provide viewers with a wealth of local and national political coverage,” says a CBS spokesman. “That includes Ch. 2’s most recent announcement of the Clinton-Lazio debate on Oct. 8.”
“Broadcasters have every right to make a profit, but they’re also public trustees,” Taylor says. “And it seems to me that part of serving the public interest is informing viewers of electoral choices.”
“There is no other commercial TV station in this country that devotes as many people to covering politics on a permanent basis the way we do,” Carbonell says.
“[Political reporter] Jay DeDapper devotes about 8-9 minutes each Monday to issues of political importance – and we have a full-time political unit.”
Greedytv is urging its users to phone or call their local TV stations to complain with the following message:
“You don’t own the airwaves. The public does. We lend you our airwaves, free of charge, in return for your commitment to serve the public interest.
“But when it comes to big-money politics, your station is part of the problem.
“As a viewer and part owner of the airwaves, I urge you to air at least five minutes a night of candidates discussing issues in the month before Election Day.”
