Citing Federal Law, TV Stations Unlikely to Comply With Request to Pull False Political Ad

By Daniela Altimari On July 23, 2012 · 1 Comment

Federal rules prevent local television stations from complying with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Chris Murphy’s demand that they pull a rival’s inaccurate ad.

“The federal law including statutes and [Federal Communications Commission] regulations prohibit the station [from editing] any ads sponsored by legally qualified federal candidates,” said David Doebler, General Manager of NBC Connecticut. “As the law states, we have to run their ad [and] cannot edit the ad and because that’s the law, we do it by the book.”

Charles J. Sennet, assistant general counsel for Tribune Co., which owns both WTIC-TV and The Hartford Courant, also declined the Murphy campaign’s request. “Under the Communications Act…a television is forbidden to refuse to broadcast a candidate advertisement based on its content,” he wrote. “This is so whether the advertisement is positive or negative and even if it contains falsehoods…Refusing to air the announcement because it is false and misleading would be clearly unlawful under applicable federal law and FCC rules.”

Murphy’s campaign sent a letter to the managers of four Connecticut television stations over the weekend asking that they pull an attack ad by his Democratic opponent, Susan Bysiewicz.

The 30-second spot accuses Murphy of accepting “more hedge fund money than any other Democrat in Congress,” an assertion that Bysiewicz and her campaign staff now acknowledges is not true. “The ad is incorrect — he’s No. 4 in terms of hedge; he’s not No. 1,” she told reporters Sunday afternoon.

In his letter, Murphy’s attorney says the stations have an obligation to pull an ad they know is false. “As you are aware, the station has a duty under Federal Communication Commission regulations ‘to protect the public from false, misleading or deceptive advertising,”’ the letter states.

Yet the rules are different for political advertising produced by candidates for federal office. Two years ago, an anti-abortion candidate for Washington D.C.’s non-voting Congressional representative produced a harrowing and extremely graphic ad showing bloody fetuses. Television stations in Washington were compelled to air the ad unedited, although some stations appended a disclaimer noting that federal law required them to show it.

Murphy campaign spokesman Ben Marter repeated the campaign’s request for Bysiewicz to scrap the ad herself.

“We’re calling on Susan Bysiewicz to take down the ad,” he said Monday. “The bottom line is we have a candidate in Susan Bysiewicz who has admitted that the ad she’s running on television is untrue at the same time she is asking Connecticut Democrats to send her to the United States Senate. Connecticut voters deserve much better than that.”

Bysiewicz campaign manager Jonathan Ducote said the campaign has no intention of pulling the spot, which is part of a $1000,000 ad buy slated to run through the end of the week. ”As with all political ads, we change up the rotation and placement on a periodic basis.” he said.

Bysiewicz and Murphy will face off in an Aug. 14 primary. They are competing for the seat currently held by the retiring Sen. Joseph Lieberman.