HE SAID/SHE SAID...ENOUGH!
Now that we’re in the home stretch of an acrimonious mid-term campaign season, an unusual thing is beginning to happen: some candidates are demanding that stations pull advertising from their opponents due to inaccuracies and/or unfairness.
Several station owners have told me that they have either received these demands or that they have been suggested. What can you do if the next phone call you receive is from an angry campaign that wants an opponent’s spots jerked from your logs?
You have several options here. At all times, of course, you need to respond tactfully and professionally, regardless of your political views. I don’t need to remind you that many local races are between individuals who are prominent in business and community affairs in your area. You don’t want to alienate them at this crucial point—but you do need to be firm.
First, and most important, remind the campaign representative that you do not legally have any say in what their opponent puts in his advertising. Any beef in that regard needs to go to the opponent, not you. Likewise, any demand to withdraw offending spots from the air.
Second, also remind the caller that you are required to air political ads as they are provided, unless they contain profanity or other obviously objectionable content that could endanger your federal license to broadcast.
Third, you have a contract to air those spots and every legal right to do so. You are simply honoring a legal business agreement, as you would expect any other station or advertiser to do. And since you (presumably) collected cash up front for that business, you are entitled to keep it.
At all times, it’s vital to put the ball in the other person’s court. If a campaign or candidate is so incensed about the content of an opponent’s spots that they threaten legal action, steer them unequivocally to their opponent’s phone.
Still, I would immediately take a listen to the offending spots. Presumably your good due diligence as a radio station manager has already led you to routinely listen to every single word of every political spot on your station. If you haven’t already done that, it just became a top priority!
