Opinion: Obama’s prime-time advantage

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TV networks give plenty of free airtime to presidential candidates (at least the ones from the two major parties). They televise their debates. Their news programs frequently cover stump speeches and campaign ads, while soliciting the candidates’ views on big stories. Some networks go even further, offering (short) segments to the major parties’ nominees in the run-up to Election Day. But Barack Obama’s campaign has raised so much money, it can afford to buy more prime-time TV face time. It’s spending an estimated $3 million to secure a half an hour slot -- 8 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 29 -- on CBS, NBC and Fox. Expect it to drop another million or so to get the same treatment from ABC. (I mean really -- can ABC afford to say no to the guy who may soon choose the next chairman of the Federal Communications Commission?)

John McCain’s campaign, meanwhile, is federally funded (by McCain’s choice), so it probably doesn’t have enough cash to do its own TV ‘roadblock’ in the waning days before the election. (In case you’re wondering, the so-called ‘equal time’ provision of federal law requires stations only to make time available to all candidates on equal terms, not to give McCain the same amount of time that Obama bought.) McCain can certainly run as much video as he likes online, where the cost is far lower -- but the audience is much smaller, too.

Which brings us to the point of this windy post: Is Obama’s TV purchase a symptom of a flawed campaign-finance system? I’m discomfited by the idea of one candidate harnessing -- alone -- the country’s most powerful communications medium in the last days of the campaign. Yet it’s happened several times before in the TV era. I’m also uneasy about the idea of using public funds to close the fundraising gap between candidates. Nor do I much care for the idea of forcing broadcasters to give candidates more free airtime to address the public. What do you think?