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FCC To Require TV Stations To Post Rates For Campaign Ads

bs0d3 writes "The FCC has voted to require broadcast TV stations to post online advertising rates they charge political candidates and advocacy groups. The vote came despite strong opposition from many broadcasters. 'By law, television stations offer political candidates advertising rates that are much lower than those offered to other advertisers.' Advocates argue the public should have easy access to information about how much candidates and other groups are spending on television to suck in voters. 'Network-affiliated stations in the top 50 markets will have six months to comply. For all others, the deadline is 2014.'"

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  1. The most shocking news would be.... by Grayhand · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    That Fox News "charges" Republican candidates. I've been crawling around for five decades and I've never seen such a biased news network. It's amazing how all the radical right wing reporters end up at the same network. I find it hard to call a network news department "news" when they only show one side. All news is a dim shadow of what it once was. I think people would be shocked if they saw news reports from 30+ years ago compared to what passes for news these days. I call reporters "news bunnies" these days, both the men and women. They are all pretty people that crack jokes and don't write their own copy, ever. Back in the day they were actual reporters that researched their own stories. I dare you to watch the BBC then watch CNN. What was depressing was seeing Isha Sesay join CNN. The first few months she was completely professional and just like a BBC reporter. After that they got her joking and laughing it up and now she's just like the rest of them. Apparently lame US journalism is infectious. Just look at the CNN schedule, there are a couple of hours a day to open news and the rest are news bunnies giving opinions. Cable stations may be within their rights to be bias but Fox news uses public airwaves so they should be held to a higher standard. People forget that "news" reporting is a requirement of the FCC so if they are using the public airwaves to report only one side then they need to be required to state this fact. Just tired of smug, one sided reporting being broadcast on airwaves we all own. If they want to be bias there's cable for that! I'd dearly love to see what they charge each candidate. If they charge Democrats more then they should loose their license. I'm not a Democrat I just get tired of bandwidth that could be used to benefit the public being used for political gain.