Honesty in Candidate ads is needed

The recent election has, once again, been filled with negative ads with questionable “facts.” A while back, a news item on CBS Morning News stated it was legal and acceptable for candidates to lie in campaign materials and ads. My question is, why should those paying for political ads not be held to the same standards as average citizens? Shouldn’t they be held legally accountable, as would the citizens they hope to represent?

It seems like a no-brainer that this should not be acceptable nor allowed by any reasonable standard. The question is, how can this be monitored and changed? Perhaps more investigative reporting is needed since politicians and others paying for political advertising seem unable to self-monitor.

Jim Davison

Waitsburg, Wash.

Publisher note:

The above letter may be referencing a report produced by CBS Morning News and aired on June, 2022. It can be viewed at https://tinyurl.com/3mvpfmnp.

According to the report, political candidates can lie in their television campaign ads, however, it is illegal for TV broadcast stations to censor candidate ads based on content. This allows for false and misleading advertisments.

The problem stems from a 1934 law meant to keep stations which are licensed to use public airways from censoring candidates in an election. The law also requires that broadcasters give candidates a lower than standard rate for airtime.

CBS News reported that broadcast stations must run the ads without edits. They can only reject an ad if it doesn’t follow the required format for political ads. For example, candidate ads must say who paid for the ad and that the candidate approves the ad.

Even though the ads must be run, it doesn’t mean candidates who lie about thier opponents can’t be sued for defamation, however, due to the time sensitivity of election ads, these lawsuits are rare.

This law only regulates tradidtional broadcast stations, not internet, social media, or cable outlets. Ads on social media platforms have been flagged or rejected due to content.

It is up to the voter to go further to verify information if possible. Below are several fact checking services online that focus on political ads.

Politifact.com, specifically https://www.politifact.com/ad-watch/ for fact checking ads.

Associated Press has a factcheck site at https://apnews.com/hub/ap-fact-check

CNN has a fact check site at https://www.cnn.com/specials/politics/fact-check-politics