Complaints Filed Against Stations For Political File Nondisclosures

The Sunlight Foundation and Campaign Legal Center filed complaints against 11 broadcast TV stations for allegedly failing to post the requisite information about political advertising sponsors in their online political files.

The complaints say the stations failed to identify the candidate the ad referred to, the issue of national importance and the CEO or board of directors of the sponsor. The groups have been tracking the online broadcaster filings in the wake of the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United and subsequent court decisions that allowed more money from outside groups into the political system without ways to specifically track the underlying funders.

"Often the only way to track this money, which is so obviously influencing our elections, is through the broadcasters’ political files, which until 2013, were kept only on paper, locked away in file cabinets," said the Sunlight Foundation.