Media Honchos, Politicians Want Free TV For Candidates

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, April 3) -- Hoping to put Americans more in touch with presidential politics, a coalition of diverse politicians and media heavyweights will sign a letter to the major networks requesting free air time for the candidates next fall.

If the needed $71,500 can be raised, the letter will appear as a full page ad in the New York Times. The signers: Senators Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.), John McCain (R-Ariz), Bill Bradley (D-N.J.), and Paul Simon (D-Ill); former network anchors Walter Cronkite, John Chancellor, Robert MacNeil, Roger Mudd and Howard K. Smith; former Republican chairmen Frank Fahrenkopf and Mary Louise Smith; former Democratic Party chairmen Robert Strauss, Paul Kirk and Charles Manatt; and actors Christopher Reeve and Alec Baldwin.

"We call on the television networks to offer free, prime-time air time to the presidential candidates this fall for use in straightforward 'talking head' presentations," the letter says, according to the Associated Press. "No tricky images. No unseen narrators. No journalists. No surrogates. Just the candidates making their best case to the biggest audience America assembles every night."

Organized by former Washington Post Journalist Paul Taylor, the group wants ABC, CBS and NBC to allow the major candidates two to five minutes each night during the last month of the campaign. "No other relatively small change offers so much promise of raising the level of campaign discourse," they write.

Rupert Murdoch has already said Fox Network will provide complimentary air time to the candidates. While the major networks are mulling the idea, some within their ranks are concerned such a format would simply be an abdication of journalistic responsibility. Others defend the level of discourse provided by their programs.

Taylor says the idea is borne out of public dissatisfaction with attack ads and 30-second soundbites. Now with the Pew Charitable Trusts, he is also seeking the participation of former presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George Bush.

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