Breaking: Court OKs Political Attack Ads on NPR and PBS

Dear Jason,

Last week a U.S. appeals court ruled that public media stations can now run political attack ads. 

The public response to this outrageous decision has been overwhelming. And now stations are starting to react. In the days since we launched our campaign to keep these ads off of public media, one local PBS affiliate (KPBS in San Diego) and one local public radio station (KSFR in Santa Fe) have pledged to reject them.

That’s a start, but there are more than 350 public television stations and 900 public radio outlets nationwide. With your help we can get all noncommercial stations to agree that taking Super PAC money to air dirty attack ads is the wrong move.

Please join our action. Tell PBS and NPR: Political attack ads have no place on public media.

Thanks — Candace

Take Action: No Super PACs on PBS and NPR! Dear Jason, Sesame Street, brought to you by Mitt Romney. Up next, Downton Abbey, but first, a word from Obama’s Super PAC. We’re not kidding! A U.S. appeals court just struck down a ban on political ads on public broadcasting stations. That means your local PBS or NPR station could start running nasty attack ads right away.1 Tell PBS and NPR: No Attack Ads! The court said that permitting these sorts of ads would not threaten or undermine the educational nature of public broadcast stations. But polluting public programming with misleading and negative ads is not in keeping with the original vision of noncommercial broadcasting. And it’s certainly not the solution to funding public media.  Many Americans turn to public TV or radio to escape the offensive political ads that have flooded commercial stations. Please join us and tell the leadership of PBS and NPR stations that they must reject political ads:  Act Now: Political Attack Ads Have No Place on Public Media An overwhelming majority of Americans say public funding for public media is money well spent. PBS and NPR and their member stations should know that accepting political ads is not the solution to public broadcasting’s funding problems. We need to invest in public media, not open it up to dirty Super PAC money. Take action now and then forward this email to your friends. Thanks, Candace, Josh, Craig, Tim and the rest of the Free Press team P.S. Like our work? The Free Press Action Fund is powered by donations from people like you. We don’t take a single cent from business, government or political parties. Please keep us going strong with a gift of $10 — or more — today. Thank you! 1. “U.S. Ban on Political Ads on Public TV Struck Down,” Reuters, April 12, 2012: http://act2.freepress.net/go/9700?akid=3456.9578237.gvDVYA&t=12

Free Press is a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media. Learn more at www.freepress.net.

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