Ford School of Public Policy will co-sponsor free air time forum

September 25, 2002
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Ford School of Public Policy will co-sponsor free air time forum

ANN ARBOR — A public forum on proposed federal legislation to provide free air time for political candidates will be held 7 p.m. Sept. 29 at the Gerald R. Ford Library on the North Campus of the University of Michigan. The forum—which is free and open to the public—is co-sponsored by the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the Michigan Campaign Finance Network. A bill to be known as the Political Campaign Broadcast Activity Improvement Act will be introduced this fall or in the new Congress by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russell Feingold , D-Wis. Its main provisions would require broadcasters to provide a minimum of two hours per week of substantive coverage of campaigns in the weeks preceding an election and set up a voucher program, funded by a broadcast spectrum user fee, to provide matching funds for candidates to purchase campaign broadcast advertising. The forum will include a brief video presentation of the free air time proposal and a panel discussion. Confirmed panelists include U.S. Rep. Lynn Rivers D-Ann Arbor, broadcast journalist Tim Skubick, host of Michigan Public Television’s "Off the Record;" Michael Traugott, professor and chairman of the Department of Communication Studies at U-M; and Paul Taylor, former Washington Post political columnist and now president of the Alliance for Better Campaigns, a nonpartisan coalition that supports the bill.

Honorary co-chairs of the Alliance for Better Campaigns are Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter and Walter Cronkite. Additional information about the bill and the free air time campaign can be found on the website of the Alliance for Better Campaigns: http://bettercampaigns.org/.

For more information about the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, visit www.mcfn.org. Information about the School of Public Policy can be found at http://www.fordschool.umich.edu/.

 

http://bettercampaigns.org/http://www.fordschool.umich.edu/