Money for nothing
Well, this is mighty odd.
According to Lee Becker's blog on Oconee County politics, The Oconee Enterprise contributed three one-quarter page ads to the campaign of Esther Porter, who is running for Post Three of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners. None of the other candidates who advertised with the newspaper received such preferential treatment, meaning they had to fork over the cash like most folks do.
I'm not sure if this is illegal since The Oconee Enterprise is a private entity and can back whoever it wants, though it would bring into play questions of fairness and bias. To my understanding, The Equal Time Rule only deals with broadcasting advertising and not print.
According to Lee Becker's blog on Oconee County politics, The Oconee Enterprise contributed three one-quarter page ads to the campaign of Esther Porter, who is running for Post Three of the Oconee County Board of Commissioners. None of the other candidates who advertised with the newspaper received such preferential treatment, meaning they had to fork over the cash like most folks do.
I'm not sure if this is illegal since The Oconee Enterprise is a private entity and can back whoever it wants, though it would bring into play questions of fairness and bias. To my understanding, The Equal Time Rule only deals with broadcasting advertising and not print.
posted by Jmac at 8:47 AM
3 Comments:
At the very least, it should jeopardize the Oconee Enterprise's status at the County Legal Organ. Whether it does in fact do that is another question all together. I recall the process for even sharing that is a long protracted one from the days when the Athens Observer usurped the Athens Banner-Herald's stranglehold on the legal ads. I don't recall any one enforcing the equal time rule since the first Reagan administration.
And I doubt it would really get kicked up here at the local level, particularly since ETR doesn't appear to apply, but it does seem to be somewhat off.
If you offering coverage of these races and running advertisements of other candidates, you ought to make all of them pay. If Vinnie Williams wanted to help out Porter, then make a donation and don't give away ads.
Everyone knows that the rules are different in Oconee County. Here is yet another example.
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