Political Ad-dtion

On Bill Moyers blog [The Misinformation Machine  March 9, 201by Tim Karr] points out the of the top three political action committees they spent 98% of their funds on negative ads that discredit another candidate. And we have to watch up to 12 hours per day of them. Without fail these ads are misleading or downright lies. For the life of me I do not understand why libel and slander laws do not apply to people in public life.

 

Information in the article:

In this era of deceptive political ads, TV viewers don’t receive enough of the antidote: the kind of hard-hitting reporting and election coverage that would help local voters separate political fact from fiction before they pick a candidate.

A 2011 Federal Communications Commission report found that 33 percent of commercial TV stations nationwide air little to no local news coverage. For those that do air news, the picture remains dim. Nearly two-thirds of local stations reported staff cuts in 2009 as owners focused on maximizing their profit margins. This has translated into fewer reporters on the political beat and less objective reporting about electoral issues.

A 2010 report by USC’s Annenberg School of Communications shows that in the average 30-minute local news broadcast, less than 30 seconds is devoted to hard local government news, including reporting on political campaigns. Meanwhile, it’s estimated that political ads will air up to 200,000 times nationwide before viewers become voters in November.

But what was bad for viewers and voters on Super Tuesday has been a boon for local broadcasters. Even after the rise of the Internet, local broadcast television has remained our most influential communications medium. According to a Pew Research Center survey, 78 percent of American viewers report getting their news from their hometown stations on a typical day — more than the number that rely on newspapers, radio or the Internet.

So, if you are looking for accurate political reporting where most of us look for it, forget it, it’s not happening. Good old greed wins over hard news regularly. In 2012 FactCheck.org did not find one single station that rejected an ad for inaccuracy; just give me the money.

 

For TV stations the political campaign season is just like Christmas with a dirty grimy evil Santa Claus handing out loot to the bad little boys and girls.