FREE AIR TIME

March 2000
		Should television networks be required to give free air time to candidates for public office? Barbara Cochran, president of the Radio-Television News Directors Association, and Paul Taylor, executive director of the Alliance for Better Campaigns, answer your questions.

Forum introduction Are the networks going to continue to settle for quiz programs? Why should anyone have for nothing something which has value? Why not charge broadcasters a fee for use of the public airwaves, and give the money to the people? How about reducing the number of days per week so there could be a real debate every week or two? Will free air time lower the amount of spending, or will it just mean seeing more of the candidates on the air? Why not mandate a free broadcast channel that airs debates, campaign info, and election coverage?     Online Special: Election 2000 Feb. 22, 2000 Negative campaigning Feb. 1, 2000 The primary press Jan. 12, 2000 Special interest ads Oct. 19, 1999 Campaign finance reform voted down Browse the NewsHour's coverage of the media and politics and campaigns   Alliance for Better Campaigns Federal Communications Commission Radio-Television News Directors Association

Galen White of Louisville, Ky., asks: I certainly agree with Walter Cronkite and Paul Taylor on the question of free air time. To say this is not what viewers want is to avoid the obligation to educate and to support the public interest. Are the networks going to continue to settle for quiz programs?   Paul Taylor responds: We may not see the day when "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" gets bumped off the air by "Who Wants To Be President," but if enough citizens provide enough pressure, perhaps the networks will be persuaded to air a nightly, running series of candidate issue statements in the month before Election Day 2000.   Barbara Cochran responds: The broadcast networks and local stations take very seriously their obligation to inform the public about important public policy issues. They devote hundreds of hours in every election year to covering campaigns of national and local interest through regularly scheduled newscasts, interview programs such as "Meet the Press" and special coverage such as the national political conventions and debates. And the public tells us they feel they are getting enough information. In surveys conducted by a professional polling firm for the Radio-Television News Directors Association and the National Association of Broadcasters, voters in this year's New Hampshire and Super Tuesday primaries said they thought television and radio had provided enough or even too much coverage of the campaign. Less than 8 percent in each poll said they thought there had not been enough coverage.