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Campaigns Pressure Stations to Pull Ads

Sep 26, 2008  •  Post A Comment

More and more, political campaigns are pressuring local stations to stop running certain ads they deem to be factually incorrect or gross distortions, the Wall Street Journal reports. The ads that their opponents try to take off the air usually are paid for by third parties, which means stations aren’t required to run them; that rule applies only to ads paid for by the candidates themselves. “If you’re these affiliates, you’re under siege,” Michael Toner, former Federal Election Commission chairman, told the newspaper. Sometimes the stations cave-in to pressure and pull the ads. “I think candidates want us to become the censors. I don’t think that’s our job,” said Mike Burgess, general manager of Albuquerque’s NBC affiliate, KOB-TV.
—Christopher Perez

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