Stations Need Transparency in Political Ads

The public has a right to know who is paying for advertising for politicians who put themselves before the public in election cycles. And I believe that it is in the interest of the community and the larger political audience to know exactly what a station has earned in an election campaign cycle and to know who purchased those ads. The Internet will not replace the role of the local broadcaster in the community. It will, however, change some of the practices. Transparency is now easily affordable and the coin of the Internet realm. The Federal Communications Commission must stand for that value and ask only that broadcasters offer the body politic the insight into the "who," "what" and "how much" is contributed in an advertising cycle in a campaign year.

[King is dean and the John Thomas Kerr Distinguished Professor of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.]