Broadcasters Fight Political Ad Disclosure Changes

With billions of political ad dollars on the line, broadcasters are working hard to make sure a new Federal Communications Commission ruling does not take even a little bite out of their share of that likely record political pie. Broadcasters want the FCC to loosen up when it comes to the reporting requirements for political ads — rules they say could lead to them having to turn down political ad dollars. The reporting obligation stems from the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, but the FCC has discretion in how it interprets the requirements in its rules implementing that law. Broadcasters are asking the FCC to decrease the number of ads that require certain disclosures and the number of disclosures per ad, all of which station personnel have to identify and report to the FCC. Broadcasters argue that the FCC’s rules could lead to them turning down campaign ads due to the threat of sanction if they fail to identify an issue. They said not only will this hurt station revenues, but political speech, since advertisers won’t be able to get their message out as broadly as they otherwise could. The Campaign Legal Center, Sunlight Foundation, Common Cause and the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society have signaled opposition to the broadcaster petition. They were the groups that filed the disclosure complaints against the stations.