Read other letters about this article

• Monday, February 5, 2007 04:38 AM

  Mandatory free airtime

  I think secret donations might help if the blinding mechanism prevents candidates from learning the dollar ammount of the donations. Otherwise, MBNA Bank could just rewrite the bankruptcy law again, for a "secret" donation of $97,683.71.

  Regardless, TV ads are the biggest campaign expense and taxpayers shouldn't have to buy them. Instead, broadcasters should be required to give free airtime to every candidate on the ballot. Starting 30 days before the election, each House candidate should get two hours of free ads, to be used as the candidates see fit. For Senate candidates, four hours and for President, eight.

  If one candidate buys additional airtime, the broadcaster should be required to match it with free airtime to every other candidate. This would make it impossible to buy advantage, while preseving the First Amendment.

  This should be an unfunded mandate. Broadcasters should be compensated only with their FCC license, which is a government-enforced monopoly privilege to broadcast on the assigned frequency.

  The price of elections would come down to levels that small donors could sustain and the improvement to American democracy would be enormous. Meanwhile, the price of underarm deodorant and car commercials would go up slightly and this would be an improvement too!

  —Jalmari
  Permalink
  Flag
  Click "Submit Flag" if you feel this post is inappropriate. Explain why below if you wish.

  Cancel