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Add an EventGreen Party Candidate Demands Equal Time
Green Party Candidate Demands Equal Time
By Mike Rhodes
October 27, 2004
Fresno California
Pappas Telecasting, the company that gave Republican Party candidates free airtime, did some damage control today. In a press release, Pappas described itself as "the largest privately-held, commercial television broadcasting group in the United States," and agreed to give non-monetary, in-kind contributions of airtimes on several of its California television and radio stations to Republican AND Democratic County Central Committees in California.
Holding Pappas Telecasting Companies feet to the fire, John Crockford, Fresno County Green Party candidate for the 29th Assembly District, showed up at their offices today and requested equal airtime for his campaign. In a letter to Pappas, Crockford said that "I am requesting that I be given free access to your stations’ airtime - under the ‘equal time doctrine’ of federal campaign law - equivalent to that time afforded Mike Villines as a result of the recent contributions made by Pappas Telecasting Cos. to the Republican Party. Crockford added that he will "consider failure to offer free airtime and timely notification to me of my equal access rights to be a violation of federal law and an abuse of the public trust. I will promptly report these violations to the proper regulatory agencies."
Information about Pappas Telecasting donating $325,000 of free air time on their California TV and radio stations for GOP candidates came to light earlier this week. The Media Alliance says in an Action Alert that this is the first instance that they are aware of - that a media giant has given free airtime for partisan ads. The free airtime on their California TV and radio stations for GOP candidates are in some of our state's tightest elections, from Sacramento to San Diego.
The Media Alliance alert went on to say:
This is not about Democrat vs. Republican. Pappas is abusing its access to the airwaves - your airwaves- to sway close state level and congressional elections. Big Media is abusing the public trust to advance their own political objectives - again.
Together we stopped Sinclair. Let's keep the momentum going!
Read
the full article about this scandal
ACTION STEPS: Call and Email Pappas Today!
1) Call Pappas Headquarters in Visalia, CA: (559) 733-7800
2) Email and call the nearest station, others too (info below)
3) BCC us at TelltheFCC@media-alliance.org
Ask for the general manager or public affairs director - and of course, please
be polite. What to Say/Write: Pappas stations use the public airwaves free of
charge and are required by law to provide equal time for the opposing
candidates. Giving away airtime to one side is illegal and is an abuse of the
public trust. I strongly object to this unfair practice and want you to include
this complaint in your Public File. I will follow up with the FCC and will
remember this violation when it comes time for license renewals. Thank you.
Station Contact Info:
SF Bay Area/Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto
KTNC 42 Azteca America (925) 686-4242
LJN@PAPPASTV.COM
Los Angeles KAZA 54 Azteca America (818) 241-5400
(ask for email of General Manager)
Fresno/Visalia
KMPH Fox 26 559-453-8820
cpfaff@kmph.com
KMPH 107.5 FM 559-584-1951
programming@kmph.com
*************end of Media Alliance alert.**************
For background about the Pappas story, see these stories from the Fresno Bee:
Tuesday, October 26
Valley broadcaster donates airtime to aid Republicans
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/politics/story/9336466p_10243105c.html
Tuesday, October 26
Democrats call for boycott of Fresno TV owner over campaign ads
http://www.fresnobee.com/state_wire/story/9336726p_10243670c.html
Wednesday, October 27
Democrats press for free airtime on Pappas venues
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/politics/story/9340927p_10247562c.html
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/9356548p-10263362c.html
KMPH radio to air 81 free spots for Moheno
By Laura Florez
Staff writer
Pappas Telecasting Cos. rushed Monday to air the first 29 of 81 free political advertisements for supervisorial candidate Lali Mo-heno in an effort to comply with a Federal ommunications Commission ruling last week.
The advertisements hit airwaves Monday just after 1 p.m. on KMPH Newsradio 107.5 FM, one of the Visalia-based company's stations, station manager Jim Pappas said.
"We dropped everything and made sure we got it on today," he said. "It's a very short time frame to get in 81 commercials, but 81 will be run."
The radio spots, which feature Moheno and her campaign co-chairman, Rev. Harry Wood, a retired pastor of Visalia United Methodist Church, were produced Monday and are scheduled to run until 8 p.m. today, Pappas said.
Today, 52 of Moheno's political advertisements -- nearly double the number that ran Monday -- are scheduled to run on the radio station, Lane Fye, Moheno's campaign manager, said.
"It's a campaign manager's dream that she gets $1,000 worth of free radio time at the last minute of the campaign," he said. "It's going to be a tremendous last-minute boost to get out a positive message."
Those advertisements follow the FCC's ruling last week that the San Joaquin Valley broadcaster, which operates 28 stations in 11 states, could not give Republican candidates free air time unless other candidates got the same offer.
The company had donated $325,000 in air time on its radio and TV stations to 13 GOP county committees.
One of those was the Tulare County Republican Central Committee, which used its donated air time to pay for advertisements for Visalia businessman Phil Cox, who is running against Moheno for the District 3 seat on the Tulare County Board of Supervisors.
The District 3 seat represents mostly Visalia.
The advertisements for both Moheno and Cox were worth about $1,296 each, Pappas said. Cox's advertisements began airing more than a week ago, he added.
"This is a unique circumstance, there's a lot of uncharted water here," he said. "In my experience, I've never done anything quite like this."
Fye said he expected the FCC would rule in Moheno's favor.
"[Pappas] cannot give away what belongs to the people, and that's air time," he said.
Cox said Monday that he believes his radio advertisements have been "very helpful" to his campaign, but added that if a judge ordered Pappas to extend similar offers of free advertising to all candidates, they had to do it.
"I believe in the laws of the land," he said. "I hope she keeps them clean and truthful."
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