Thursday, July 7, 2005

Political talk isn't cheap, according to ruling

By BILL VIRGIN
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Talk-radio hosts regularly discuss candidates and ballot issues, often with a particular point of view in favor of one or opposed to another.

Do those comments constitute a financial contribution to a campaign?

Thurston County Superior Court Judge Chris Wickham thinks they do. In a ruling issued Friday, Wickham said the comments and activities by KVI-AM (570) hosts Kirby Wilbur and John Carlson on behalf of the Initiative 912 campaign are in-kind contributions that must be reported to the Public Disclosure Commission.

Initiative 912 is an effort to repeal the legislatively enacted increase in the state gasoline tax. The deadline for submitting at least 225,000 signatures to qualify the initiative for the November ballot is tomorrow.

The ruling was sought by the San Juan County prosecutor and city attorneys for Seattle, Auburn and Kent as part of a larger case involving contributions to the Initiative 912 campaign. Their argument is that the KVI hosts went beyond merely talking about the issue.

In a release posted on the anti-initiative Web site Keep Washington Rolling, the plaintiffs accuse initiative backers of "failure to disclose the significant in-kind contributions received from Fisher Broadcasting, owners of radio station KVI. Radio hosts Kirby Wilbur and John Carlson have spent countless hours working on campaign strategy and promotion while on the Fisher payroll, and the KVI Web site urges listeners to help the two get the measure on the ballot. None of these resources provided by the Seattle-based broadcasting corporation have been reported as required per state disclosure laws."

Wrote Wickham, "In the area of speech, requiring disclosure of in-kind contributions for media time allocated to campaigning for a political campaign will not restrict that campaigning, but merely require it to be disclosed to the general public, much the same as any other valuable contribution." As part of his ruling he ordered No New Gas Tax to disclose "all in-kind media contributions."

The ruling has attracted attention beyond Washington's borders. "It is absolutely stunning in terms of the philosophical and theoretical questions it raises," says Michael Harrison, publisher of the talk-radio trade magazine Talkers; Harrison adds that he's not aware of a similar case elsewhere in the country.

In Harrison's view, if no money changed hands then there's no contribution. "Otherwise you can subject it to taxes, limits on contributions, all kinds of things that get in the way of free speech. To put a value on it is a very dangerous precedent." (In response to the ruling and to meet a deadline, the initiative campaign estimated the value of the hosts' work at $20,000).

For broadcasters the ruling raises huge questions. Dennis Kelly, program director for Fisher's KOMO-AM and KVI-AM, notes that KOMO commentator Ken Schram blasted Wilbur and Carlson for supporting the gas-tax repeal. Does that have to be reported as an in-kind contribution to Keep Washington Rolling, he asks?

Brian Maloney, a former Seattle-area talk-show host who now runs a national blog on talk-radio issues, raises this question: If talk-radio comments count as political contributions, why not newspaper editorials? Or Web sites?

It's unclear what's the next legal step in this case. Kelly says the Radio and Television News Directors Association has been asked to look at the case. In the meantime, there's been no directive to the hosts on what they can and can't say, and Kelly says he would prefer not to do that. "To me that smacks of censorship," he says.

Brett Bader, a political consultant working with the No New Gas Tax campaign, said for now most of the focus has been on getting the minimum signatures submitted (232,000 were to be turned in to the secretary of state's office yesterday, but the campaign is hoping for more by the deadline to provide a cushion). As for an appeal, either to a higher court or to the Public Disclosure Commission, Bader says "we're still deciding"

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/231...diobeat07.html

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