Political Ad Record-Keeping NPRM May Get 4-0 OK
A draft NPRM on largely administrative changes to broadcast political advertising rules isn’t considered controversial and will likely be unanimously approved at or before commissioners' Aug. 5 meeting, said FCC officials and broadcast attorneys in interviews. The draft seeks comment on proposals to formalize policies about filing political ad information that the Media Bureau had long conveyed to licensees informally, attorneys said. “Some of it was already required, so I’m not sure that it makes much of a difference,” said Fletcher Heald's Anne Crump.
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An FCC spokesperson declined to comment on whether the draft NPRM could be approved ahead of the meeting and deleted from the agenda. The representative noted that as of Thursday afternoon, docket 21-293 had no ex parte activity.
The draft item seeks comment on revising rules to formally require political issue ad information to be included in broadcaster public files. That would bring rules in line with the language of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. “While the Commission has advised relevant parties consistent with the recordkeeping requirements” from BCRA, rules “were not updated,” said the draft item.
Broadcasters have been following the requirement anyway, because of Media Bureau guidance, said Wilkinson Barker's David Oxenford. “They’ve been conveying to licensees what they expected,” said Crump. She and Oxenford said the rule change was unlikely to practically affect how stations operate. Oxenford called the proposals minor, “almost ministerial.”
The draft NPRM’s other proposal concerns defining a candidate for purposes of political programming rules, such as receiving the lowest unit charge for ads. The NPRM seeks comment on adding the creation of a campaign website and social media promotion to criteria of whether a write-in candidate has made a “substantial showing” and should be treated as a qualified candidate. The showing requirement is intended to let stations avoid extending those benefits to nonserious, nonviable write-in candidates who aren’t actively campaigning, said Crump.
Currently, the showing includes “making campaign speeches, distributing campaign literature, issuing press releases, maintaining a campaign committee, and establishing campaign headquarters,” the draft NPRM says. “We are not proposing that social media presence alone would be sufficient to support a status of ‘legally qualified candidate’ but that it would be an additional indicator.” The NPRM would seek comment on adding “digital marketing and advertising” to the substantial showing list.
Oxenford and Crump don't consider this a major possible shift. A write-in candidate seeking to take advantage of the political ad rules “doesn’t come up very often,” Crump said.