On the other hand, smaller parties either have to find independently wealthy candidates or settle for smaller advertising campaigns which reach less of the public and therefore remove any legitimate chance of their winning an election. Since campaigns need such large war chests, candidates must spend considerable time fund raising. They are forced to use valuable time that could be spent serving the public raising money for radio and television advertisements. The candidate who takes the most time away from dealing with the issues will have the best funded, and therefore most effective, campaign. It is time for broadcasters to give something back to the public.
Broadcasters have a responsibility to help better society as a whole.
The FCC is not demanding a channel devoted exclusively to election coverage. The proposed plan would even leave scheduling of campaign ads up to individual broadcast stations. The FCC is merely asking that broadcasters voluntarily provide five free minutes of air time daily during the 30 days leading up to an election. Many broadcasters have balked at these proposals, maintaining that it is not the role of the government to determine programming content. They argue forced election coverage would severely reduce profit margins.