Free Airtime Bid Sees Mixed Results

With a wave of negative political commercials dominating the airwaves, the campaign to provide free airtime to presidential candidates fell short of its ambitious goal of raising the level of political discourse this year, its supporters have conceded.

Former Washington Post reporter Paul Taylor, who founded the Free TV for Straight Talk Coalition, admits that he didn't get all he wanted when he started his campaign 10 months ago, but he believes he has positioned himself well to play a role in the upcoming debate over campaign finance reform.

One of the proposals on the table would give politicians free time on TV in return for an agreement to limit campaign spending.

While setting aside free time for candidates may be disruptive to TV stations and networks, it will not alter the amount of media time bought by candidates. But a limit on campaign spending could have a profound effect on political advertising revenue, say broadcasters.

Taylor's idealistic goal was to improve the level of political dialogue by handing over free chunks of airtime to presidential candidates. Politicians already get a discount on media time for campaign commercials, but Taylor urged the networks to donate several minutes of valuable primetime to the leading presidential contenders.

The free time offer was designed for candidates to address the nation in a straight forward "talking head" style without the filter of a sneering journalist or questioning moderator. Taylor hoped the candidates would use the time to address substantive issues and enter a "running dialogue" with each other. He also hoped they would use the time to tell the truth.

It turns out, according to the Annenberg School for Communication survey, that the candidates used the time to repeat their core campaign themes and in some instances unfairly attack their opponents. Annenberg has supported Taylor's efforts.

Although the free time statements tended to be more accurate, both Clinton and Dole used their donated time to misrepresent their opponents positions, according to the Annenberg survey.

For instance Dole claimed Clinton is responsible for the largest tax increase in history. Clinton claimed Dole fought for deep cuts in Medicare.

Every major network, except for ABC, ended up providing gratis air time to the Dole and Clinton campaigns but only 20% of Americans were even aware that the free time was being offered, according to the Annenberg survey.

Taylor's original plan called for the webs to set aside five minutes each night during the final month of the campaign for candidates to address the nation. Taylor and the Free Time coalition eventually trimmed their request down to 2 minutes of primetime during the final three weeks of the campaign. The candidates were to take turns addressing the nation on alternate nights.

In full page newspaper advertisements, the coalition also asked all the webs to set aside the same portion of primetime for a simultaneous airing of the candidate statements. Even though a majority of Americans now have at least 30 cable channels to choose from, Taylor believed he could trap enough of the viewing public in primetime roadblock to alter the course of democracy in America

Most of the networks initially balked at the proposal and never fully embraced it. Far from the roadblock Taylor proposed, the networks ended up offering a smorgasbord of candidate statements which were lost amidst the tidal wave of political information that floods the airwavesduring the final weeks of a presidential campaign.

Despite the setbacks, Taylor can point to several successes. The networks initially resisted the idea, but most webs committed some free time to Clinton and Dole. Even station groups got into the act with offers to provide time to local and federal candidates. FCC chairman Reed Hundt gets much of the credit of getting the networks and other broadcasters to toe the line.

In era when the FCC wants broadcasters to prove they are indeed serving the public interest, volunteering to provide free airtime to candidates has become quite trendy. "You do things like this when you want to make sure (the FCC) knows you are good guy," said one broadcast lobbyist.

Fox was first

Fox was actually the first to get on the free airtime bandwagon, with an offer of one minute of primetime each night during the closing weeks of the election. Fox made the offer even before Taylor's Free TV coalition was up and running. Of course, Fox is awaiting FCC approval of its plan to acquire the 12 New World stations.

CBS also offered free airtime. It made a point of noting that it would also repeat the candidate statements over its national radio network. Of course, CBS is awaiting FCC clearance for its $ 3.9 billion acquisition of Infinity Broadcasting Corp. LIN Broadcasting is offering free airtime over the four stations it operates through Local Management Agreements. The FCC is now in the middle of a proceeding to examine LMAs.

In the end, it may not matter what the broadcasters motivations were when it came to offering free time to candidates. Taylor knows that his 10-month long effort resulted in networks and stations handing over time to candidates, setting a precedent for future elections. He also expects to become a player in the upcoming debate over campaign finance reform. A central piece of that reform will be an agreement to limit campaign spending in return to free access to the airwaves.

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