It’s campaign season! Time to start searching for hidden spending in FCC files

[Commentary] Federal Communications Commission records are a potential treasure trove of near real-time political spending data -- though they are difficult to dig into.

They can only be searched by television station, and the reports the stations file are only kept as PDFs, so the numbers within them can’t be easily crunched. And for the moment, the FCC database only includes records from the top four stations in the top 50 markets; beginning in July, all broadcast stations will be required to upload their records to the FCC’s site.

The discrepancy between what was filed with the FEC and what was filed with the FCC doesn’t necessarily mean any law was broken. The filing requirements at the two agencies are different. In addition to being cumbersome, the FCC data isn’t always complete for federal races either, observers say.

But it’s always worth checking. And for small markets, this could be a treasure trove once all stations have to upload their reports. That’s where it would be easy for a smaller news outlet to cull through the FCC filings and find out what’s going on in their media market.