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

Mike of Cleveland, Ohio, asks: With all the channel capacity available, why not mandate a free broadcast channel (government sponsored, and carried by cable as well) that airs debates, campaign info and election coverage?   Paul Taylor responds: Sounds great for political junkies and dedicated voters, but citizens who are more disengaged from the process will be unlikely to seek out such a channel. Take a look at the audiences drawn by C-SPAN (created by the cable industry as a public service) versus the ABCs, NBCs and CBSs of the world. We think that democracy doesn’t have to be niche programming – that if campaigns play out in a town square, maybe the whole town would actually tune in. In a world of multiplying media choices on cable and the Internet, broadcast television is the closest thing we’ve got to a town square.   Barbara Cochran responds: That's precisely the reason Congress created the public broadcasting system, of which PBS and the NewsHour are essential parts. Congress was very careful to preserve the editorial independence of public broadcasting from government control and that independence should be preserved. A government-controlled channel for political dialogue would be a profound violation of the First Amendment.