Ban political ads on TV

[hatman]

A while back, I posted my thoughts about political ads on TV, specifically that we would be better off as a country if we didn't have them.

Recently, the White House launched a new tool called We The People. Any citizen (or at least anyone willing to provide a name, email address, and zip code) can register and create and sign petitions. If a petition gets 150 signatures, it becomes visible on the site (before that, it's available by direct link only). If it gets at least 5000 signatures, it will be officially reviewed and considered by the White House staff. If it doesn't hit that target within a month, it gets closed.

It's a good way to get people engaged, and for the White House to get feedback and ideas.

I think you can see where this is going. I created a petition to ban political ads on TV. Doing so would take a lot of the money back out of politics, would get a lot of divisive misinformation off our airwaves, and would help level the playing field which currently gives a huge megaphone to corporations and special interests. It would make speech more free, not less.

Please consider it. If you like it, sign it and pass the word.

Comments

[batgirl1.livejournal.com]

My main complaint about political ads is that they tend to be along the lines of "vote for me because my opponent is a terrible person who will eat your children." Dave Barry phrased it better than I ever could, but you get the idea. If it was more like "I am for these points and against these other points, so vote for me if you feel the same way," then we might have something worth keeping, but no. 9_9

[batgirl1.livejournal.com]

Paul, I just had a terrible thought: By saying what ads can or cannot be shown on TV, does this idea violate the 1st amendment?

[pgwfolc.livejournal.com]

No kidding. Ads have gotten exponentially more negative in my lifetime. And they stretch the truth further and further. Personally, I'd like to see a system where there's a government-run website which acts as a candidate directory. Each candidate gets to fill out a standard profile (with room for free expression). If applicable, it would also include the established voting record. And publicly available campaign finance data. (Oddly, it wasn't that long ago that campaigns were publicly financed...)

And yes, I believe Congress and the FCC have the power to regulate campaign ads. You have the right to say what you want in public, but you don't have the right to your own TV show, or the right to broadcast obscenities, or the right to make false advertising claims, or the right to put up a campaign ad without saying who paid for it, or for a PAC to coordinate their ads with any campaign, etc.

Of course, the current supreme court might disagree. They ruled that corporations can spend unlimited money on ads because money is speech and corporations are people. Which actually directly contradicts a century of consistent supreme court precedent, but we have a heavily right-wing court right now. (Which is a shame. Judges shouldn't be nominated based on their politics. But that's another matter.)