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A friend and I had a big drunken conversation about this as a solution.
I believe this is sort of how it goes: when granted their licenses, tv and radio stations are required to do a certain amount, give up airtime for the public good (this is why your cable co. has those so-called public information channels)...
What could be more for the public good than learning about the candidates who want to represent you? Joe Average American may not want to give up Survivor or Price is Right repeats but he can just suck it up as far as I'm concerned.
Though advertising's my thing, I say it has no place in politics. Everybody gets equal-time via debates, townhall meetings and roundtable discussions that broadcast networks are required to air in their entirety and at a decent hour. Nobody running for office is allowed to purchase spots on radio or tv. Similar goes for print. Newspapers run profiles, comparisons, allow the candidates a certain number of editorials. We could allow funds to be made available to established, non-partisan groups to run ads and send mailers comparing the candidates but that's it.
And I want a t-shirt: "First thing we do is kill all the focus groups"... I'd love to have focus groups taken out of the equation.
Some Rove-type will find ways around this, I'm sure but... well, like I said, my friend and I were pretty drunk when we hashed this out.
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