[grc] Political Office Holders Producing Programming

[Philip Tymon]

Some footnotes for those who don't mind getting into the thickets of this
issue:

1. Section 399 of the Communications Act, which bans non-commercial
stations from endorsing candidates, also used to ban them from
editorializing. There was a case (
https://casetext.com/case/fcc-v-league-of-women-voters-of-california)
in which the Supreme Court overturned the ban on editorializing. Not that
many non-commercial stations take advantage of that and editorialize as far
as I know. Nor do I particularly recommend it.

I am not aware of any challenge to the remaining part of Section 399 which
bans non-coms from endorsing a candidate.

2. Also, as far as I know Section 399 does not prohibit non-comms from
taking a position on ballot issues. It only applies to candidates.

3. And, while many stations have a policy of not allowing candidates to be
on the air, that is not required by Federal law. All that happens is that
you trigger the equal time rule.

In a land very long ago and far away I was faced with the situation of one
of our programmers (one of the best people I have ever run into, who had a
music program) who was running for office in New York City. His program was
on the air once a week. I believe there was only one other candidate
running for the office. So, after consulting with the programmer, we
offered his opponent that, for the duration of the campaign, she could have
his slot every other week. She declined. Problem solved. He kept on
broadcasting. (I think there was a story in the New York Times about this.)

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On Fri, Jun 25, 2021 at 3:53 PM Michelle Bradley via grc <
grc at maillist.peak.org> wrote:

> The issues surrounding the liability for rules/law violation stem from
> the risk of endorsing a candidate for public office in violation of the
> Communications Act.  Once they are elected, there's no law/rule
> preventing it. However, if they declare their candidacy for re-election
> or for election to a different public office, they need to go back off
> the air.
>
> *Michelle A. Bradley, CBT*
> /Amateur Radio: KU3N/
> /Founder - REC Networks/ - *https://recnet.com* <https://recnet.com>
> *1-844-REC-LPFM* / +1 202 621-2355
> SBE Certified
> On 6/25/2021 5:21 PM, Dana Matthews via grc wrote:
> > Our station, KYRS in Spokane, WA has a policy requiring any program
> > host who has declared themselves a candidate for public office to take
> > a hiatus from their show during the campaign. However, it does not
> > state that a current office holder cannot produce programming. Does
> > anyone have opinions or experience with political office holders
> > producing programming, or is this addressed in any other station's
> > policy?
> > Thanks, Dana Matthews
> > KYRS Program Director
> > Dana Matthews 509-869-4108
> > Office 509-747-3012 ext 2
> >
> > KYRS Thin Air Community Radio
> > Medical Lake-Spokane 88.1 & 92.3FM
> > KYRS.org
> > _______________________________________________
> > grc mailing list
> > grc at maillist.peak.org
> > http://maillist.peak.org/mailman/listinfo/grc
>
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