November 2015

Donald Trump Advertises Rising Value of Free Political Publicity

Donald Trump hosted “Saturday Night Live” and gave interviews to at least four national television networks the next day. The result: an opportunity to reach millions of potential voters, without spending a dime.

In fact, while many of his Republican presidential rivals have poured money into the airwaves in search of such exposure, Trump has not spent any money at all on television advertising since he announced his candidacy in June. Yet he has remained at or near the top of most national and state polls for months. “TV ads are necessary, they can be effective, but in terms of overall value, being the host of ‘Saturday Night Live’ is probably going to get you a lot more as a candidate than 20 ‘super PAC’ ads,” said Dave Levinthal, senior political reporter at the Center for Public Integrity. Trump’s ability to command media attention and reach voters without depleting his campaign funds is just the latest example of the way that his campaign has upended the conventional approach candidates have used to communicate with voters.

Ben Carson rants at media, and it seems to be serving him well

Submitted by benton on Mon, 11/09/2015 - 06:59

Editorial: California political donation records should have no online expiration date

Submitted by benton on Mon, 11/09/2015 - 06:59

The Senate wants to make way more spectrum available

Under the draft text of a bill now being informally considered by the Senate Commerce Committee, the government could be instructed to find and relinquish an additional 20 megahertz of publicly owned spectrum beyond the 30 MHz President Barack Obama agreed to when he signed the two-year budget deal.

Agencies would be required to auction off the total 50 MHz by 2024. The move accelerates an important push by industry and lawmakers to build a long-term "spectrum pipeline" designed to ensure that the country's wireless communications networks can keep growing. The draft legislation provides other incentives to speed up the deployment of mobile and wired Internet access. To encourage government agencies to give up the spectrum they currently hold but may not be using, the draft bill proposes to give them up to a 25 percent cut of auction proceeds. It would enshrine into law a voluntary commitment in 2010 by President Obama to clear up 500 MHz of spectrum by 2020. And it includes an idea that would make it easier for Internet providers to lay down new networks, known as "dig once."