Political ads won’t spoil public programming

Television viewers who find political ads more infuriating than enlightening will welcome a federal appeals court’s ruling that Congress has the power to ban such advertising from public TV and radio stations “in order to preserve the essence of public broadcast programming.” But this week’s decision by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is hard to square with the Supreme Court’s view that the government needs a good reason to restrict speech about public affairs even on public TV and radio. It deserves to be reversed.

By an 8-3 vote, the 9th Circuit upheld a law prohibiting advertising on public stations for products (except for those marketed by nonprofit organizations), candidates for office and political causes. The law had been challenged by a San Francisco public TV station.

The decision overturned a previous ruling that had struck down the ban on political advertising. In that ruling, Judge Carlos T. Bea conceded that Congress had good reason to worry that the lure of revenue from ads for commercial products might induce public broadcasters to replace educational programming with material more likely to garner higher ratings. But Bea said there wasn’t “substantial evidence in the record before Congress” to suggest that children’s and other educational programming would be similarly endangered by a station’s acceptance of political ads.

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One might think that Congress could do as it pleases when it comes to public broadcasting. But public stations aren’t mere appendages of government, and the Supreme Court has recognized that they enjoy some of the same 1st Amendment protections as commercial stations. In 1984, for instance, the justices struck down a law prohibiting public stations from airing editorials.

Legal interpretations aside, allowing public radio or TV stations to air political ads needn’t undermine their commitment to educational or children’s programming; on the contrary, proceeds from such ads can be used to pay for such fare. Finally, the notion that public broadcasting is commercial-free is a fiction. Although the law bans “advertisements,” businesses that “underwrite” programs may announce that fact on the air in a way designed to endear their products to potential customers. If public broadcasting can survive such pitches, it can survive the occasional political ad.