The Federal Communications Commission is set to vote next week on whether to require local television stations to put public files, including political advertising records, online. Local news broadcasters say the commission’s approval of new reporting requirements is a foregone conclusion; they’re just waiting to see how much information will have to be posted and how much time the federal agency will give them to comply.
“It seems almost a fait accompli,” Mike Cavender, Executive Director of the Radio, Television Digital News Association, said in a telephone interview. “We’re going to need to see the way the final regulations come down and the specifics behind them, but we remain generally concerned that the more information that has to be compiled, whether it is about campaign finance or public issues reporting requirements, could cause certain staff members at a station to engage in a greater workload. Specifically we’re going to have to see how extensive these new regulations might be before I can really comment on that.”
Since 1938 broadcasters have been required to keep a file for public inspection. The file routinely contains information on children’s programming, equal employment opportunities, a copy of the station’s FCC license, and – particularly important during election seasons – data on political advertising sales. Currently radio and television news studios keep these documents in file cabinets, made available to the public during business hours.
The FCC proposal will require stations to now post these same documents online for public viewing. The proposed requirement will increase transparency and improve public access to community-relevant information, agency officials say.
More work may mean higher costs based on the size of the station as well as its personnel and administrative costs, according to RTDNA’s Cavender, which has not actively lobbied against the proposal but has expressed its reservations. Cavender also questions whether public use will justify the extra work and costs.
“The public file information has not received a lot of use by the public,” Cavender said. “I don’t know how much that will change once the documents go online.”
The National Association of Broadcasters, which has actively lobbied against the proposal, supports requiring stations to post “regular summaries” of the number of advertising spots each candidate or political action committee purchases and the amount paid for each spot, according to a report published this week by TVNewsCheck.com, which covers the broadcasting industry.
That’s not part of what the FCC will be considering next week, however.
With TV stations expected to earn $3 billion from political advertising this year, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski expressed little sympathy for broadcasters at the annual NAB conference this week when they raised concerns about costs and workload, according to the TVNewsCheck.com report.
Steve Waldman, senior media policy professor at the Columbia School of Journalism in New York and lead author of the FCC’s report, “Information Needs of Communities,” said by phone that under the current FCC proposal, broadcasters will be required to post the exact information online that they are already required to disclose.
“Instead of disclosing it in a file cabinet, they will be disclosing it online,” Waldman said.
Few citizens drop by their news stations to ask for the files, but even if they do, the station’s main studio is sometimes a substantial distance from its community of license, according to the FCC report prepared by Waldman. That will no longer be a barrier to the information once it is more easily accessible on public websites, he said.
Waldman also said he is puzzled by the fact that news organizations are fighting the proposal when they ought to be calling for greater transparency, not less.
Once the information is on the Internet, the public will be able to see who is buying television and radio ads, the name of the groups behind the ads, the group’s board of directors and how much money they are spending, Waldman said. “It’s important to know the requirement will apply not just to federal races, but to state and local races as well,” he added.
When local TV stations balked at digitizing political advertising information, ProPublica stepped forward last month by asking members of the public to help compile and post public files online. The independent, non-profit news organization started by first enlisting the aid of students at Medill to visit five stations in the Chicago area and copy the reports, which ProPublica uploaded to its site. Less than a day after asking for help to do this at more stations, 48 people in 35 television markets had volunteered, Poynter reported.
Media advocacy organizations are already gearing up for the expected change. On Wednesday, Free Press, a Washington, D.C-based national nonpartisan, nonprofit working to reform the media, offered online training for professional and citizen journalists on how to inspect the public files of local stations. And today, the New America Foundation, which formulates media policy reforms, will host a panel discussion on whether the current system of public interest obligations for broadcasters is broken considering the massive lobbying blitz broadcasters launched to help defeat the FCC proposal. Waldman is scheduled to participate in the panel discussion.
FCC commissioners are scheduled to vote on the proposal April 27.
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