Wisconsin just finished a particularly nasty Supreme Court election. Now begins the retrospectives on how special interests soured the campaign and made it nasty. In the case of this election, private interests spent $5 for ever $1 the candidates spent. While I’m not particularly opposed to regulation addressing some of this, I want to go in a slightly different direction. This could end tomorrow if people really wanted it ended. The problem is people don’t want it ended.
No, I’m not speaking of people boycotting stations or any other such nonsense. The stations themselves are well within their rights to refuse 3rd party interest ads, or even ads from candidates themselves. The only way stations could get in trouble is if they acted inconsistently. Considering that many stations offer local news 4 or 5 times daily, I think they could easily make the argument they are fulfilling their obligations to the public interest, which is part of their licensing. There is one reason and one reason only for the filth put out there and that is the greed of the station owners.
The natural counter argument is that people shouldn’t be denied the airwaves as a forum to air their grievances. Good gracious, why shouldn’t they? Most sane people don’t have an issue denying the airwaves to Holocaust deniers. And the public interest groups whose opinions people may care about don’t even use the airwaves to distribute their views. The NRA predominantly uses direct mail. AARP does some TV, but it also has its own network for reaching its members. In politics, TV and radio air time are predominantly for fly-by-night organizations to offer their messages under the impression that they represent someone other than a few cranks with money. Part of having a public trust is denying the use of public resources to those who seek to destroy it.
For the record, my ox wasn’t gored because I don’t vote for judges. I think the practice is repugnant and against the interests of law and justice.
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