Senator John McCain on Free Air Time

A Broadcast Spectrum Fee for Campaign Finance Reform

Senator John McCain will outline a new bill that would provide vouchers for political candidates to buy time on the nation's broadcast media, funded by a small fee on broadcasters who currently pay nothing to use the public airwaves. Broadcasters were given licenses -- at no cost -- to use spectrum now valued at $250 billion in return for in-kind "public interest obligations," such as educational and civic programming. However, the industry has increasingly shirked these obligations -- both cutting back radically on substantive campaign coverage and gouging candidates for political ads at inflated prices (a total of $1 billion during the 2000 elections alone). Our panel will debate this issue and examine Senator McCain's proposal for legislative reform.

06/19/2002 - 12:00pm
06/19/2002 - 2:00pm
JW Marriott Hotel
1331 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC, 20004
United States
See map: Google Maps

Participants

  • John McCain
    (R-AZ), United States Senator

  • Norman Ornstein
    Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute

  • Robert Corn-Revere
    Hogan & Hartson

  • J.H. Snider
    Research Director, New America Foundation
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