Mike Levin: “I thank the Chair. Relative to the Snowe-Jeffords amendment, this amendment strikes an acceptable balance between the…”

“I thank the Chair. Relative to the Snowe-Jeffords amendment, this amendment strikes an acceptable balance between the need to protect the integrity of our electoral process and the need to protect the rights to free speech. It would address issue ad abuse by creating a new category of electioneering ads, defined as ads that refer to a clearly identified candidate up for election and which are broadcast on the regulated media of television or radio close in time before an election. Now, why radio and television? The answer is that the Supreme Court itself has held that, due to the fact that these media, radio and television, are regulated, are licensed, and that the spectrum is limited, you can regulate these media in ways in which you cannot regulate newspapers or the printed word. The Supreme Court has ruled that there is a difference between Government regulating licensed media and unlicensed media, and where Government issues a license--gives out a license of great value for public media--it can indeed regulate the media in a reasonable way, ways it can't possibly even think of regulating newspapers or other print media, which are not regulated media. Indeed, the FCC has regulations on what can be said on radio and television. There are rules against obscenity on radio and television. There are rules about the numbers of commercials and the types of commercials on children's television.”