You’ve probably seen and/or heard a campaign ad at some point over the last year or so. If you have, you’ve probably noticed some variation of “I approve this message” in the spot. Yes, it’s a little annoying, but it’s part of the new McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, called the “Stand By Your Ad” provision.
The idea, I suppose, is that candidates may be less inclined to offer baseless negative attacks against their opponents if voters see and hear the candidate say that they approve the commercial’s message. So far, I don’t think it’s working, but that’s another discussion for another day.
Both the Bush and Kerry campaigns have unveiled a series of TV-like ads that never appear on TV — they’re Internet-only. They look like and sound like TV ads, but people can only see them online. So far, Kerry has applied the same standards to online advertising that he does to traditional TV advertising. As such, every Kerry ad, including the Internet-only spots, feature Kerry telling the viewer that he approves the message. Seems like the right and legally responsible thing to do.
Bush, however, has decided to push the envelope a bit.
An alert reader, a Carpetbagger regular a fondly call PJ, noticed that the latest Bush’s ad has left off the “I approve this message” tagline. The brand new ad, released just five days ago and titled “Tell the Truth,” merely ends with a “Bush-Cheney ’04, Inc.” tagline. Not a word about Bush approving anything.
Can they do this legally? I’m not sure.
I’ve been checking the language of the law and, unfortunately, McCain-Feingold, refers specifically to television and radio campaign ads (check Sec. 311 if you wanted to take a look).
The law makes no mention of Internet-only advertising, probably because no one had ever created one and the lawmakers didn’t see it coming.
So, has Bush found a loophole? Maybe. No reasonable person can disagree that the spirit of the law requires the “I approve this message” tagline on all broadcast advertising. It’s pretty obvious that was the intent and that the law omitted online ads as an oversight.
The Bush campaign, however, has gone out of its way to identify the “Tell the Truth” ad as a “web video.” Surely, they’re prepared to argue that it isn’t technically a television ad since it wasn’t made for broadcast on TV.
It’d make an interesting lawsuit, or at a minimum, FEC investigation. Any election law experts who happen to be reading this should certainly send their comments in.