Free Press Urges Public Broadcasters to Reject Attack Ads

WASHINGTON –– On Thursday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a ban on political advertising on public television and radio stations. The court said that permitting this type of advertising would not threaten or undermine the educational nature of public broadcast stations. It upheld the ban on advertising by commercial and for-profit companies.

Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron made the following statement:

“Polluting public broadcasting with misleading and negative political ads is not in keeping with the original vision of noncommercial broadcasting. And it’s certainly not the solution to funding public media.

“At a time when people are turning to public broadcasting to get away from the flood of nasty attack ads, viewers don’t want to see Sesame Street being brought to them by shadowy Super PACs.”