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ORGANIZATION ISSUES MONEY/POLITICS NEWS INDEX |
Website shows local TV political ad incomeFor immediate release: September 14, 2000  COLUMBUS -- A new website, on line for the first time today, will make it possible for visitors to track station-by-station, market-by-market revenues from political ads. The new site arrives as the television industry sets a record-breaking pace to take in up to $1 billion from political ads this year, according to PaineWebber analysts. The site was designed by the Alliance for Better Campaigns, a national effort to improve the quality of political coverage on TV. The Alliance wants stations to air at least five minutes of candidate issue discussion on each of the last 30 nights of the campaign. Visitors to the site will be able to learn about this project and e-mail and fax their local stations with comments. Those without Internet access can call toll-free, (866) GREEDYTV. Nationwide, 44 local stations are participating in the effort so far. Ohio is a national leader with four stations participating; only Florida has more, according to Catherine Turcer of Ohio Citizen Action. The Ohio stations are WCPO and WLWT in Cincinnati, WEWS in Cleveland, and WKBN in Youngstown. During the height of the primary season, on average, the national networks and local stations offered fewer than 40 seconds a night of candidate issue discussion. On September 7, the Alliance for Better Campaigns did a random sampling of 15 stations in the top 75 media markets. These stations devoted an average of 28 seconds to candidate-centered segments between 5:00pm and 11:30pm. In the first seven months of this year, local television stations in the nation's top 75 media markets took in $211.6 million from 286,737 political ads, according to a report released today by the Alliance. A new report from the Center for Public Integrity, published in the current issue of Columbia Journalism Review, showed where some of the political ad revenue goes. The TV industry has spent $111.3 million lobbying Congress since 1996, in part to block campaign finance reform bills that include free candidate air time. Ohio Citizen Action campaigns on issues from toxic waste and food safety to utility and insurance rates to political reform. The non-profit, non-partisan organization was founded in 1975. # # #
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