The broadcast giveaway: when 'the public interest' means free ads for politicians.

• Author: Powell, Adam Clayton, III

"We have to address the real reason for the explosion in campaign costs: the high cost of media advertising. I will - for the folks watching at home, those were the groans of pain in the audience - I will formally request that the Federal Communications Commission act to provide free or reduced-cost television time for candidates who observe spending limits voluntarily." So said President Clinton in his State of the Union address.

And so, over the groans of his listeners in Congress, he told the American people watching on television that he planned to require broadcasters to make campaign donations of commercial time to political candidates - or, more precisely, to candidates approved by the major political parties. What the president did not tell Americans watching on television was that he had already appointed a commission last year to do just that. The Advisory Committee on Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters, more widely known as the Gore Commission, is charged with creating a series of new "public interest obligations" for broadcasters. Since October, it has been deciding how high a price television stations must pay, in free political advertising time and other "public service" costs, to keep their licenses.

Of course, that's not exactly the way the White House wanted the commission to be viewed by the media in general and broadcasters in particular. But consider the president's own words last June, when he announced the appointment of the panel's co-chairmen, Les Moonyes, president of CBS Television, and Norman Ornstein, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute: "For years," Clinton said, "I have supported giving candidates free time....Now we're working to make it happen. Today I'm appointing two distinguished Americans to lead a commission that will help the FCC decide precisely how free broadcast time can be given to candidates, as part of the broadcasters' public interest obligations." The president described the donation of air time to political candidates as "the least we can ask of broadcasters."

But even Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who thinks air-time donations are a good idea, has mixed feelings about letting the FCC, which licenses TV and radio stations, make such rules. "What prevents them from then saying, 'You've got to give free time to the next FCC hearing, or the Commerce Committee chairman's next speech'?" he asked The New York Times. "Where does it end?"

McCain said only an act of Congress can obligate broadcasters to donate commercial time. But many legal scholars question whether even Congress has that power. Professor Rodney Smolla, who teaches at the College of William and Mary Law School, wrote what many believe is the bible of First Amendment law, Free Speech in an Open Society. At a January forum on the Gore Commission organized by the Media Institute, a media policy think tank, Smolla said the...