FCC’s McDowell Offers Hope on Political Ad Files

Federal Communications Commission member Robert McDowell stopped just short of formally endorsing the broadcaster-backed alternative to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s plan to require TV stations to post their entire political advertising files online.

Speaking at a NAB Show panel with fellow FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, he said he would prefer that stations “aggregate” the spending of individual candidates and PACs and report that on a weekly or daily basis rather than requiring them to put the rates of all political buys on the Web — a proposal that broadcasters have been vigorously opposing and that is set for an April 27 FCC vote. “Isn’t it more valuable to know that x campaign or x super PAC is spending $25,000 on that station?” McDowell’s proposal sounds a lot like the alternative proposed by the Television Operators Caucus, a coalition of leading broadcasters. It too would require stations to post regular summaries of spending by candidates and PACs. After the panel, Commissioner McDowell said he wouldn’t go so far as to say he was endorsing the specific TOC plan. “But if it’s in the same spirit, it’s in the same spirit.”