FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 31, 2003

DURBIN LEGISLATION WOULD REQUIRE BROADCASTERS TO LIVE UP TO OBLIGATION TO SERVE THE PUBLIC INTEREST

July 31, 2003
New federal legislation -- the Our Democracy, Our Airwaves Act -- would require the nation’s television and radio stations to live up to their public interest obligations by providing voters with more information about candidates and issues at election time
U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin [D-Ill.] joined Senators John McCain [R-Ariz.] and Russell Feingold [D-Wisc.] in sponsoring the legislation, which could improve broadcast news coverage of political campaigns and make the campaigns less expensive.
"The key to campaign finance reform is the cost of television advertising, and this legislation would reduce the amount of money in politics by making the public airwaves more accessible for political speech," Durbin said.
The Our Democracy, Our Airwaves Act amends the Communications Act of 1934 in the following ways:

* It requires that television and radio stations, as part of the public interest obligation they incur when they receive a free broadcast license, air at least two hours a week of candidate-centered or issue-centered programming during the period before elections.

* It enables qualifying federal candidates and national parties to receive up to $750 million worth of broadcast vouchers that can be used to place political advertisements on television and radio stations in each two year election cycle. The voucher system will be financed by a spectrum use fee of not more than one percent of the gross annual revenues of broadcast license holders.

* It closes loopholes in the "lowest unit cost" provision in order to ensure that candidates receive the same advertising rates that stations give to their high-volume, year-round advertisers. A study recently released by the Alliance for Better Campaigns found that in the final two months of campaign 2002, stations around the country raised their rates by an average of 53 percent.

* It provides better disclosure of political advertising time bought by candidates.

"We studied how broadcast television in Chicago covered the 2002 election campaign, and each of the five major stations gave very little attention to issues and candidates in that important election," said Cynthia Canary, Director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. "At the same time those stations were raking in more than $40 million in ad revenue from political commercials, they were devoting little time to candidate interviews, debates and examination of issues in the campaigns."

For more information about the legislation and how the broadcast industry profits from the current election system, visit www.ilcampaign.org.
# # #