{"id":13866,"date":"2013-12-05T04:14:00","date_gmt":"2013-12-05T04:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/articles\/political-ad-disclosure-for-2014-why-not\/"},"modified":"2013-12-05T04:14:00","modified_gmt":"2013-12-05T04:14:00","slug":"offenlegung-politischer-anzeigen-fur-2014-warum-nicht","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/de\/articles\/political-ad-disclosure-for-2014-why-not\/","title":{"rendered":"Offenlegung politischer Anzeigen f\u00fcr 2014 \u2013 Warum nicht?"},"template":"","class_list":["post-13866","article","type-article","status-publish","hentry","article_type-blog-post"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"Viewers deserve to know who's trying to buy their vote","featured_image":null,"article_type":1103,"authors":["{\"site_id\":\"1\",\"post_type\":\"person\",\"post_id\":7865}"],"related_issues":[137,2082],"related_work":false,"location":null},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":null,"name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":null,"component_wysiwyg":{"content":"

Falls jemand an der Autorit\u00e4t des Bundeskommunikationskommission<\/a> (FCC) eine umfassendere Offenlegung dar\u00fcber zu verlangen, wer tats\u00e4chlich f\u00fcr all die anonymen politischen Anzeigen bezahlt, die im letzten Jahr die Radiowellen \u00fcberschwemmten, Das Government Accountability Office (GAO) hat diese Autorit\u00e4t gerade bekr\u00e4ftigt<\/a>. The GAO\" the government's top watchdog agency\" is also critical that the FCC has not bothered to update its \"sponsorship identification\" guidelines since the 1960s and it recommended that the Commission do so.<\/p>

The right of the people to know who is sponsoring advertisements, both commercial and political, goes back to the 1920's and the old Federal Radio Commission. Subsequently this authority was rolled into the new Federal Communications Commission when it was established in 1934.<\/p>

The GAO tells us at the outset that it wrote the new study because \"The FCC is responsible for ensuring that the public knows when and by whom it is being persuaded.\" Again, this requirement applies to both commercial and political advertising. In fact, the GAO states, \"For content considered political or that discusses a controversial issue, broadcasters must follow all requirements for commercial content and additional requirements, such as indentifying officials associated with the entity paying for an advertisement.\"<\/p>

It is Section 317 of the Communications Act (47 U.S.C.  47) that requires on-air identification of ad sponsors. Explaining the rules it wrote to implement the law, the FCC stipulated years ago that political ads must \"fully and fairly disclose the true identity of the person or persons, or corporation, committee, association or other unincorporated group, or other entity\" paying for them. \"Listeners are entitled to know by whom they are being persuaded,\" said the FCC. I think we all get the drift of what's being required here: specific identification of who is really bank-rolling all this stuff?<\/p>

I believe that when a law requires \"true identity\" it means \"true identity.\" In other words, a chemical company dumping sludge into the Chesapeake Bay should not be allowed to masquerade as \"Citizens for a Clean, Green Future\" or \"The Committee for Sky Blue Waters.\" Nor should billionaire contributors, conservative or liberal, be allowed to mask their identities under a cloak of \"Citizens for Purple Mountain Majesties and Amber Waves of Grain.\"<\/p>

Let's face it. Money commands outrageous influence in our politics. Money buys elections, opens the doors of the power elite, and sometimes even writes the laws that Congress, our statehouses and city councils vote on. It is reliably reported that more than $6 billion was spent on the 2012 elections, the largest chunk of that going to media buys. Limiting the influence of that $6 billion must be our goal, but in light of the notorious B\u00fcrger vereint<\/a><\/em> Angesichts der Entscheidung des Obersten Gerichtshofs, die den Geldhahn f\u00fcr nahezu unbegrenzte Wahlkampfgelder ge\u00f6ffnet hat, sind Ma\u00dfnahmen erforderlich, die der derzeitige Stillstand in Washington offenbar nicht herbeif\u00fchren kann.<\/p>

So the billionaires and corporations, the PACs and SuperPacs, and all the other special interests that come up every day with new ways to send dark money down dark alleys, see little to fear. They can go on writing their mega-checks (they're doing so as you read this) for the 2014 Congressional and down-ballot races free from meaningful limits, free from limiting government oversight, free from public disclosure. And they're already busy picking their favorite candidates for 2016, too.<\/p>

But, wait! There is something we can do. Right now. It won't solve the overall problem of money in politics, and we must all, of course, keep working on that. But if the FCC would exercise the authority it has under Section 317, we could at least see Big Money unmasked. We could know who is really running all those ads and we would much better understand the message once we identified it source.<\/p>

Section 317 has apparently been locked in some dusty FCC bin for more than 20 years. All the while, special interests have been inventing new ways to inject anonymous money into campaigns across the land. The FCC has made no attempt to keep current with it. The GAO noted, very critically I thought, that \"FCC guidance for the sponsorship identification requirements has not been updated in nearly 50 years to address modern technologies and applications.\" And while this statement addressed the totality of sponsorship identification responsibilities, it strikes me as spot-on with regard to what has happened in the world of political ads.<\/p>

Here's the best part. This reform\" and it would be a huge reform\" can happen without waiting for Congress to pass any new law. It requires no legislative or executive proposal from the President. No Constitutional Amendment needs to be enacted and ratified. All we need is for the Federal Communications Commission to exercise authority it already has. The rules implementing this authority need some updating, given that they have not been significantly modified since the \" 60s. This can be done through normal notice-and-comment processes that the FCC uses just about every day. I can see no practical reason for this updating to take more than 90 or 120 days. That means it can be in effect in plenty of time for the 2014 elections.<\/p>

Vor zwei Jahren beantragte Andrew Jay Schwartzman vom Media Access Project bei der FCC genau dies. Sein Vorschlag wurde ignoriert. Ich habe \u00e4hnliche Ma\u00dfnahmen gefordert, sowohl vor meinem Ausscheiden aus der Kommission als auch danach. Ich kann das Z\u00f6gern, in dieser Angelegenheit voranzukommen, nicht verstehen. In meiner neuen Rolle als Leiter des Medien- und Demokratiereforminitiative bei Common Cause<\/a>, we are pushing for disclosure through our \"Your Right to Know\" Campaign. It is your right, you know.<\/p>

Someone will say, \"Well, the FCC would be sued for doing this.\" Well, the FCC is sued for just about everything it does. I guess even an 86-year old requirement can be contested. But note this: the Oberster Gerichtshof der USA<\/a>'s deservedly-maligned B\u00fcrger vereint<\/em> decision spoke encouragingly of disclosure. Eight of the Justices effectively signed on to a statement in that decision saying \"Disclosure is a less-restrictive alternative to more comprehensive speech regulations.\" So we should not be paralyzed by fear of judicial reversal.<\/p>

Nach der Ver\u00f6ffentlichung des GAO-Berichts Die Fraktionsvorsitzende der Demokraten im Repr\u00e4sentantenhaus, Nancy Pelosi (die die Studie in Auftrag gegeben hatte), sowie die Abgeordneten Henry Waxman und Anna Eshoo ver\u00f6ffentlichten eindringliche Erkl\u00e4rungen<\/a> urging the FCC to update its rules. Rep Eshoo noted: \"Where power once originated from the general electorate, that balance has shifted in favor of the enormously wealthy, who can now hide their identity and their political expenditures. It's time for the FCC to play a crucial role in bringing greater transparency to America's electoral system by requiring sponsors of political ads to disclose their true identity, not just their ambiguously-named Super PAC.\"<\/p>

Erst letzte Woche sprachen sich Senator Bill Nelson und der Vorsitzende des Handelsausschusses des Senats, Jay Rockefeller, f\u00fcr die Offenlegung der Informationen aus und dr\u00e4ngten die vor ihnen aussagenden FCC-Kommissare, Stellung zu beziehen. Nun \u00fcben beide H\u00e4user des Kongresses Druck auf die FCC aus, ihre alten Regeln zur Anzeigenkennzeichnung zu aktualisieren.<\/p>

Imagine: you're watching an ad and it actually tells you who is trying to win (or buy) your vote. What a difference a little sunlight would make. What a great tool disclosure would be to citizens trying to navigate their way through the anonymity and mud of what our campaigns have become. It's your right\" demand no less.<\/p>

Dieser Beitrag<\/a> originally appeared on the Benton Foundation's blog<\/p>"}}]},"yoast_head":"\nPolitical Ad Disclosure for 2014 — Why Not? - Common Cause<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/de\/artikel-2\/offenlegung-politischer-anzeigen-fur-2014-warum-nicht\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Political Ad Disclosure for 2014 — Why Not?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/de\/artikel-2\/offenlegung-politischer-anzeigen-fur-2014-warum-nicht\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Cause\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CommonCause\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/CC-Share-Graphic-Main9.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@CommonCause\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/articles\/political-ad-disclosure-for-2014-why-not\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/articles\/political-ad-disclosure-for-2014-why-not\/\",\"name\":\"Political Ad Disclosure for 2014 — Why Not? 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