It's the time of year when you can’t avoid political commercials and messaging. It is all around you – on your social media accounts, websites you visit and TV stations you watch including WCPO 9.
It is estimated that as much as $12 billion will be spent on 2024 political races.
If you live in a state with a competitive race you can expect to see more advertising than the average American during an election cycle.
This year, Ohio’s Senate race is one of the most competitive in the country and that means big dollars are being spent to get your vote. Advertising for this race started in the spring and will continue to ramp up all the way to election day on November 5.
Every year, many of you who watch WCPO 9 ask legitimate questions including:
‘Why are you running all of these political commercials?’
‘That political ad is full of lies!’
‘How can you run the content in that ad?’
That’s why we thought it was important to explain how the political advertising business works for broadcasters like WCPO 9. Four years ago, I wrote a similar column, and I thought it would be helpful to do it again considering the amount of political advertising that you are seeing.
WCPO 9’s ability to broadcast its signal into your home is regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, also known as the FCC. As part of our license with the FCC, we must follow federal laws in order to stay in business and continue providing you news and other programs.
Under the FCC rules for political advertising, broadcast television stations are required to air ads for all federal candidates and most state candidates. The candidates are protected by the FCC’s “no censorship rule,” which prevents the stations from refusing an ad or running it at times viewers are less likely to see it due to content. Those rules also prevent us from editing or revising the content of the ads. In other words, they must run as provided to us by the candidate.
You will also notice advertisements from Political Action Committees (PACs). Those commercials are funded by private groups who are for-or-against a candidate/issue. These PAC ads are not regulated by the FCC.
WCPO 9 and our parent company, EW Scripps, support freedom of speech principles of the First Amendment, which emphasize a robust and open debate about the political process. Although some of today’s political action committees may use aggressive tactics during the campaign season, their ads fall under free speech and have a right to be on a broadcast.
In each of the political commercials the candidate or PAC must identify who is responsible for the advertisement either by using audio and/or putting it up on the screen. If you have objections to the messaging in a political ad, that’s who you will want to reach out to express your concerns.
A resource you may want to check out is the Federal Election Commission.
There you can examine how much money a Federal candidate raised and spent.
What we can continue to do at WCPO 9 is make a commitment to give you complete, unbiased news coverage. We realize that there are many sources for your news on the election and appreciate you turn to us for fair, factual coverage.
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