Broadcasters caught in political crossfire

Candidates facing blistering attacks from television and radio ads are fighting back by demanding that stations take down ads that contain false claims.

Station owners and their lawyers said they're seeing more demands that they take down ads, often threatening lawsuits or complaints to the Federal Communications Commission. "Each year it gets to be a bigger and bigger problem, and that's just a function of ads are getting more and more aggressive, and more money is coming in from non-candidate groups," said David Oxenford, a Washington attorney who represents broadcasters and who is the editor of BroadcastLawBlog.com. Although political ads are generally protected by the First Amendment, protests can succeed in blunting the attacks. The Federal Communications Commission doesn't keep statistics but "is not seeing an increase in political advertising complaints," said Janice Wise, an FCC spokeswoman. She said the FCC has never taken action against a license for the content of ads. But Oxenford said threats of action -- lawsuits or FCC complaints -- have risen steadily.