Dollarocracy (58 page)

119
. Quoted in Alina Selukh, “Ads Flood Last Weeks of Campaign—and So Does Negativity,”
chicagotribune.com
, September 27, 2012.

120
. Dan Gillmor, “A Strategy for Filtering America's Toxic Sludge of Political Advertising,”
presstv.com
, August 19, 2012.

121
. Stephen Ansolabehere and Shanto Iyengar,
Going Negative: How Political Advertisements Shrink and Polarize the Electorate
(New York: Free Press, 1995), 11–12.

122
. Fowler and Ridout, “Advertising Trends in 2010,” 4.

123
. Quoted in Pam Rooks, “Society Watch: Is It American Voters or American Politicians Who Need to Wake Up?”
Politicalfiber.com
, October 4, 2012.

1
. Ned Martel, “As Iowa Caucuses Near, TV Stations See Ad Buys Boom After Long Lull,”
Washington Post
, December 31, 2011.

2
. Ibid.

3
. Ibid.; D. M. Levine, “Shot in Arm Expected for 2012 Political Ad Spend: MediaVest Sees a 30% Jump Possible in Key States,”
AdWeek
, December 27, 2011.

4
. Laura Baum, “Presidential Ad War Tops 1M Airings,” Wesleyan Media Project, November 2, 2012.

5
. Charles McChesney, “What Does All That Campaign Spending Get Spent On?”
Syracuse.com
, November 12, 2012.

6
. Walt Whitman, “Election Day, November 1884,” first published in the 1891–1892 edition of
Leaves of Grass
,
http://whitmanarchive.org/criticism/reviews/complete_poems/anc.00131.html
; Matt Taibbi, “How the Hype Became Bigger Than the Presidential Election: Blame the Media for Making Whole Generations Hate the Process,”
Rolling Stone
, October 9, 2012.

7
. Ibid.

8
. Ben Fox, “E. W. Scripps Posts Profit on Political Ad Spend,”
MarketWatch
, November. 9, 2012.

9
. “Political Boon Leads Gray to Up Estimates,”
tvnewscheck.com
, November 8, 2012.

10
. Wayne Friedman, “Election Money Fuels Big Gains for Scripps,”
mediapost.com
, November 9, 2012.

11
. Andy Fixmer, “CBS Profit Climbs 16% as Political Advertising Boosts Radio, TV,” Bloomberg, November 8, 2012.

12
. Ryan Sharrow, “Sinclair Broadcast Earnings Rise in 3Q on Political Spending,”
Baltimore Business Journal
, November 1, 2012.

13
. Associated Press, “Politics Ads, Olympics Lift Belo 3Q Profit 81 Pct,” October 30, 2012.

14
. Scott Eymer, “Don't Hate Political Advertising—Profit from It,”
Seeking Alpha
, September 12, 2012. Eymer, a former broadcaster, writes at
http://seekingalpha.com
.

15
. Bill Moyers and Bernard Weisberger, “Money in Politics: Where's the Outrage?,” Huffington Post, August 30, 2012.

16
. See Robert W. McChesney,
Telecommunications, Mass Media, and Democracy: The Battle for the Control of U.S. Broadcasting, 1928–1935
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).

17
. Diana Mankowski and Raissa Jose, “Flashback: The 70th Anniversary of FDR's Fireside Chats,” Museum of Broadcast History,
http://www.museum.tv/exhibitionssection.php?page=79
.

18
. Joseph E. Cantor, Denis Steven Rutkus, and Kevin B. Greely, “Free and Reduced-Rate Time for Political Candidates,” report prepared for the Congressional Research Service, July 7, 1997, 6.

19
. This is a preliminary calculation and is therefore a conservative estimate. Andrew Vanacore, “Political Ads Called ‘Gigantic Band-Aid' for TV Stations' Bottom Lines,” Associated Press dispatch, October 29, 2010,
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/political-ads-called-gigantic-band-aid-t
.

20
. Quoted in Jeff Cohen, “TV Industry Wields Power in D.C.,”
Baltimore Sun
, May 4, 1997.

21
. “Time Is Right to Buy Media Stocks Like TWX, DIS, NWS, CMCSA,”
InvestorPlace
, June 20, 2011,
http://www.investorplace.com/46016/twx-nws-dis-cmcsa-cbs-via-sbgi/
.

22
. Quoted in Catalina Camia, “TV Stations Set to Make Money from 2012 Political Ads,”
USA Today
, June 22, 2011.

23
. Quoted in Anthony Noto, “For Media M&A, Christmas Comes Early,”
Mergers & Acquisitions
, July 13, 2011,
http://www.themiddlemarket.com/news/qa_media_ma_poised_for_a_pickup-221486–1.html
.

24
. Tim Dickinson, “Guess Who's Profiting Most from Super PACS?”
RollingStone.com
, August 6, 2012.

25
. Quoted in Laura Baum, “2012 Shatters 2004 and 2008 Record for Total Ads Aired,” mediaproject .wesleyan.edu, October 24, 2012.

26
. Quoted in Belinda Yeung, “Iowans Can't Avoid Political Ads on TV,”
kcrg.com
, October 21, 2012.

27
. John Shelton, “The 2012 Election Cycle Is Already Costing You Money,”
Advertising Age
, August 7, 2012.

28
. Darrell M. West, “Communications Lessons from the 2012 Presidential Election,”
UpFront
analysis, the Brookings Institution, November 6, 2012.

29
. Elizabeth Wilner, “Equal Time for Politicians May Mean Less Ad Time for Other Marketers,”
Advertising Age
, August 23, 2012.

30
. Marino Eccher, “Political TV Ad Blitz Dominates Airwaves,”
Jamestown (North Dakota) Sun
, September 12, 2012.

31
. Quoted in Jack Messmer, “Sinclair's Political Shooting Through the Roof,”
TVNewsCheck.com
, August 1, 2012.

32
. Quoted in Dan Eggen, “Observers Say Amount Spent on Federal Races Could Hit $6 Billion,”
Monterey (California) Herald
, September 2, 2012.

33
. Quoted in Erin Ailworth, “Election Spending on Local TV Surges,”
Boston Globe
, September 23, 2012.

34
. Elizabeth Wilner, “Ad Avalanche: 43,000 Political Spots a Day Until November,”
Advertising Age
, September 13, 2012.

35
. Felipe Cabrera and Victor Luckerson, “The Numbers: What Fueled the Priciest Election in U.S. History,”
Time
, November 18, 2012; “Florida: Congressional Races in 2012,”
opensecrets.org
(accessed November 20, 2012).

36
. Paul Farhi, “Dilemma for D.C. Stations: So Many Political Ads, So Little Airtime,”
washingtonpost.com
, October 22, 2012.

37
. Luke Rosiak, “In Pursuit of Coveted Independents, Campaign Ads Invade Local TV News,”
Washington Times
, September 2, 2012.

38
. Jed Lewison, “22 Consecutive Political Ads During Half-Hour Columbus, Ohio, Newscast,”
dailykos.com
, November 1, 2012.

39
. Farhi, “Dilemma for D.C. Stations.”

40
. Ted Johnson, “TV Biz Savors Windfall from Political Ads,”
variety.com
, October 31, 2012.

41
. Wilner, “Ad Avalanche.”

42
. Luke Rosiak, “Political-Ad Tsunami Swamps Southeast Virginia,”
Washington Times
, September 11, 2012.

43
. Barack Obama, “Transcript of President Obama's Acceptance Speech at the Democratic National Convention, as Delivered,” Federal News Service, September 6, 2012.

44
. Alex Jackson,” Maryland Voters Agree, They're Sick of Ads,”
Capital Gazette
, November 7, 2012.

45
. Ibid.

46
. Ken Tingley, “Political Ads on TV Are a Bad Dream,”
poststar.com
, October 9, 2012.

47
. Mike Plews, “Omaha Pharmacists Take on Political Advertising,”
wowt.com
, November 1, 2012.

48
. “Cameron v Letterman: A Zero-Sum Equation,”
guardian.co.uk
, September 27, 2012; James Kirkup, “David Cameron Braves David Letterman's US Chat Show—and Leaves Red-Faced,”
telegraph.co.uk
, September 26, 2012.

49
. Noto, “For Media M&A.”

50
. Derek Turner, the research director at Free Press, provided us with the data for this paragraph.

51
. Quoted in Michael Beckel, “Big Business Prefers GOP Over Democratic Super PACs,” Center for Public Integrity, July 25, 2012.

52
. James Curran, Shanto Iyengar, Anker Brink Lund, and Inka Salovaara-Moring, “Media System, Public Knowledge, and Democracy: A Comparative Study,”
European Journal of Communication
24, no. 1 (2009): 5–26.

53
. Stephen Cushion,
The Democratic Value of News: Why Public Service Media Matters
(Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).

54
. Lyndon B. Johnson, “Remarks in the Capitol Rotunda at the Signing of the Voting Rights Act,” August 6, 1965, in
Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965
, vol. 2 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1966), entry 394, 811–815. In his speech, Johnson said, “Millions of Americans are denied the right to vote because of their color. This law will ensure them the right to vote. The wrong is one which no American, in his heart, can justify. The right is one which no American, true to our principles, can deny.”

55
. Robert Caro,
The Passage of Power
(New York: Knopf, 2012).

56
. Harold Wilson, speech at Labour Party conference, October 1, 1963, Labour Party Annual Conference Report (London: Labour Party, 1963), 139–140.

57
. Lyndon Johnson, “Remarks upon Signing the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, November 7, 1967,” University of California at Santa Barbara (Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley) American Presidency Project,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=28532
.

58
. Bill Moyers, “Remarks at PBS Annual Meeting,” May 18, 2006. A version of the remarks can be found at
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/faithandreason/pbsaddress.html
.

59
. Ibid.

60
. See Carnegie Commission on Public Television,
Public Television: A Program for Action
(New York: Harper & Row, 1967).

61
. Quoted in Roger Smith, “Public Broadcasting as State Television,”
www.tompaine.com
, March 11, 2003.

62
. James Reston, “A Base for a Milestone: Carnegie Report, Like Land-Grant Act of 1862, May Greatly Influence U.S. Life,”
New York Times
, January 26, 1967.

63
. Carnegie Commission,
Public Television
, 8.

64
. Ibid.; Nichols, McChesney interviews with Moyers. Nichols and McChesney have interviewed Moyers frequently over the years. The conversation cited here took place March 26, 2010, in New York.

65
. Aaron Barnhart, “In Public TV We Trust,”
Electronic Media
, July 22, 2002, 10.

66
. Moyers, “Remarks at PBS Annual Meeting.”

67
. Dennis Hevesi, “Wilbur Mills, Long a Power in Congress, Is Dead at 82,”
New York Times
, May 3, 1992.

68
. Moyers, “Remarks at PBS Annual Meeting.”

69
. Jack Gould, “News Laboratory Experiences Some Birth Pains,”
New York Times
, November 3, 1967.

70
. Laura R. Linder,
Public Access Television
(Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999), 2.

71
. Jack Gould, “Lack of Funds May Shut Down Hoving's Broadcast Improvers,”
New York Times
, February 21, 1969.

72
. Grace Glueck, “The Total Involvement of Thomas Hoving,”
New York Times
, December 8, 1968.

73
. Louise Sweeney, “Congress Urged to Pay Off on Public-Broadcasting Pledge,”
Christian Science
Monitor
, July 16, 1968.

74
. National Citizens Committee for Public Broadcasting,
The State of Public Broadcasting
(New York: National Citizens Committee for Public Broadcasting, July 1968).

75
. “. . . Soap Suds and Dog Food,”
Boston Globe
, October 14, 1968.

76
. Lawrence Laurent, “Hoving's Forthright Blast Will Make Powerful Enemies,”
Washington Post
, October 1, 1968.

77
. “. . . Soap Suds and Dog Food.”

78
. “TV and the Voter,”
Christian Science Monitor
, October 3, 1968.

79
. Jack Gould, “A Gadfly Buzzing the Status Quo,”
New York Times
, October 27, 1968.

80
. Jerry Landay, “Failing the Perception Test,”
Current
, June 2001; David Hatch, “PBS Decision Irks Tauzin,”
Electronic Media
, May 15, 2000, 4.