Money, Media and Elections
The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision launched a new era of big-money politics. The wealthiest 1 percent now have unprecedented power to pick and choose our nation’s leaders. And they’re spending the bulk of this money on televised political ads designed to mislead voters.
So where’s the broadcast media in all of this? Instead of exposing this runaway spending and separating fact from fiction in an election year, they’re lining their pockets with the winnings from this massive ad buy … to the tune of more than $3 billion dollars.
This year we have a historic opportunity to advance reforms that will nurture a media of, by and for the people. Join our fight to hold broadcasters accountable to the public and give us the reporting we need to make informed decisions at the polls come Election Day 2012.
The Latest
Our new report, Citizens Inundated, exposes both sides of the Citizens United problem — where the billions of dollars in special interest money are coming from and where they're going.
Last Friday, the Federal Communications Commission voted to put television broadcasters’ public and political files online to make them easier to access. This is a major victory.
The FCC’s decision will give the public easy access to vital information that was previously hidden away at TV stations in dusty filing cabinets. But there’s a catch.
What happens when a group of broadcast journalism students set out to inspect the public files at their local television stations?
Three out of four stations refuse to let their cameras in.
“Cleveland television stations,” one student said, “don’t like television cameras.”
Moments ago, the Federal Communications Commission ruled that television stations must enter the 21st century and put the information in their public and political files online. Now anyone with an Internet connection will be able to access information about who is spending all that money on political advertising.
Sounds like an Onion headline, but it’s not. Yesterday a U.S. appeals court struck down a ban on political advertising on public TV and radio stations.
There’s a lot of buzz about all the corporate money that has poured into politics since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling and related court decisions lifted nearly all limitations on political spending. But there’s a lot less talk about where that money — estimated to number in the billions this year — is going: into the pockets of the media.
Dirty politics is a growth industry with few happy customers. In the run-up to Super Tuesday, television viewers nationwide had to endure an onslaught of negative and deceptive political ads.
It might be hard to believe, but sometimes political ads are chock full of distortions, manipulations and boldfaced lies.
But every once in a while a broadcaster shows some muscle and pulls a dishonest ad.
Primary season is in full swing and voters are being inundated with political advertising. Finding out who actually paid for all these ads is no easy task. The Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling ushered in a new era of deep-pocketed donors and gave them cover under innocuously named third-party groups and Super PACs.
President Obama succumbed late Monday to the dark logic of the Super PACs, instructing top West Wing staffers to help raise money for the so-called "independent" groups that have been successful in picking winners and losers thus far in 2012.
