Media Action Center is a nonprofit group of concerned residents throughout the United States led by former Emmy-winning broadcaster turned media democracy advocate Sue Wilson. We successfully influence policy at the Federal Communications Commission and at local US TV and Radio stations to ensure We the People are truly served by Our publicly owned airwaves. MAC joined Frequency Forward in filing a Motion to Intervene in ABC/Disney v FCC to ensure viewers, who own the Public Airwaves and whose rights are paramount, has a seat at the table. MAC also joined a current Petition to Deny the broadcast licenses of DISNEY ABC at the FCC. In 2017, MAC forced Entercom to give up its $13.5 million license to KDND for killing a woman in a radio water drinking stunt. That same year MAC empowered local listeners across the country to take Alex Jones off their local radio dials. In 2000, we informed the Supreme Court in FCC v Prometheus Radio that multiple local TV stations with one corporate owner merely duplicate news stories on all its stations; a similar methodology is currently being used in legal cases trying to prevent the Nexstar/TEGNA merger.

Find full journalistic coverage of all this plus Sinclair Broadcasting's shell game and other public interest media issues at SueWilsonReports.com. See also Wilson's documentary "Broadcast Blues" which is more relevant today than when it premiered in 2009. Broadcast Blues.

Tell Candidates: Threaten to Sue TV Stations Over Lying Political Ads

March 1, 2016

For years, I've been working on the "Public Interest Obligations" of broadcasters. What exactly does it mean that TV and Radio stations are required to "serve the public interest" as a requirement of their licensing? 

One issue I have written about over the years are political ads that blatantly lie to We the People over the very airwaves that are sworn to serve us. I've suggested that We the People start a class action suit against the stations, but have been told by attorneys that we have no standing to file such a case. 

But candidates themselves do have such standing, and I've just written an article about Ted Cruz threatening to sue TV stations over third party ads he says lie about him. Now that he has complained to the station, that media outlet will have to fact check the ad to make certain it is true, something they should be doing in the first case, given that TV stations stand to make $4.4 Billion in this 2016 election cycle alone.

So here's our action: write to candidates of your choice and ask them to threaten to sue the TV Stations over lying political ads. 

It's a simple and effective way to clean up our elections and take the bite out of the Citizens United teeth.