Gouging Democracy: How the Television Industry Profiteered on Campaign 2000


 

Publication Date: May 2008

Publisher: Alliance for Better Campaigns

Author(s):

Research Area: Media, telecommunications, and information; Politics

Type: Report

Abstract:

Local television stations across the country systematically gouged candidates in the closing months of the 2000 campaign, jacking up the prices of their ads to levels that were far above the lowest candidate rates listed on the stations' own rate cards. They did so despite a 30-year-old federal law designed to protect candidates from such demand-driven price spikes.