Gannett asked the FCC Media Bureau to reverse its first-of-a-kind ruling that...
Gannett asked the FCC Media Bureau to reverse its first-of-a-kind ruling that a candidate on the ballot in an area not reached by a TV station’s coverage, as determined by one mathematical model but based on another model the agency…
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prefers, is guaranteed the right to buy political spots. The bureau last week sided with the campaign of Randall Terry. The order said the unaffiliated candidate for president, whose ads depict aborted fetuses in criticizing President Barack Obama, could buy ads on Gannett’s WUSA in Washington because he was on the ballot in West Virginia (CD Nov 5 p2). The commission’s Longley-Rice model that Gannett said was more accurate than the agency’s now-preferred noise limited service contour (NLSC) means “a candidate could have a right of forced access to a broadcast station whose signal does not even reach the state in which the candidate is running,” the company wrote. The filing was posted Tuesday in WUSA’s online public file (http://xrl.us/bnyhru). “Hypothetical service to a mere 3,436 individuals in West Virginia should not entitle a West Virginia candidate to forced access to reach millions of D.C., Maryland and Virginia households,” it said. The “simplistic NLSC” instead “vastly overstates the Station’s actual service area” by not considering “intervening terrain,” the broadcaster said. It said the bureau’s order was “clear abuse of Section 312 of the Communications Act” that gives candidates “reasonable access” to purchase airtime.