Senator John McCain on Free Air Time

Senator John McCain will outline a new bill that would provide vouchers for political candidates to buy time on the nation’s broadcast media, funded by a small fee on broadcasters who currently pay nothing to use the public airwaves. Broadcasters were given licenses — at no cost — to use spectrum now valued at $250 billion in return for in-kind “public interest obligations,” such as educational and civic programming. However, the industry has increasingly shirked these obligations — both cutting back radically on substantive campaign coverage and gouging candidates for political ads at inflated prices (a total of $1 billion during the 2000 elections alone). Our panel will debate this issue and examine Senator McCain’s proposal for legislative reform.

Participants

• John McCain
  (R-AZ), United States Senator
• Norman Ornstein
  Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute
• Robert Corn-Revere
  Hogan & Hartson
• J.H. Snider
  Research Director, New America Foundation