…their coverage will follow:
David Almasi, executive director of the National Center For Public Policy Research, kept a log of commercials aired during the ABC World News broadcast from June 24th to October 12, a period of approximately three-and-a-half months following ABC’s rejection of health care-related ads from Conservatives for Patients’ Rights.20 The results are as follows:
In July, 173 of 326 commercials, or 53 percent, were PhRMA company advertisements. In August, 176 of 321 commercials, or 54.8 percent, were PhRMA. In September, 156 of 293, or 53.24 percent, were PhRMA commercials. Of the eight days in October analyzed, 45 out of 80 commercials, or 56.25 percent, were PhRMA company ads.
The grand total? In the 98 days of ABC World News programming analyzed from June to October, the broadcast featured 1,102 commercials, 597 of which were PhRMA member company advertisements, representing 54.17 percent of total commercials aired.
Notes Almasi, “Ad after ad on World News came from members of the drug lobby group PhRMA. It’s almost laughable how many ads they run each day. If they were to stop, it would seem doubtful the broadcasts could continue.”
The data, representing months of recording and logging of ABC World News commercials viewed in the Washington D.C. market, reveal an astonishing double layer of hypocrisy. ABC News, in spite of its morally superior affectations against “advocacy ads,” is perfectly willing to turn over large chunks of its news programming to a politician – if that politician is backed by companies representing more than half its advertisements.
You might recall ABC shrugged off charges that they did not or would not bring any opposing view to the broadcast in question.
Never forget that the broadcast networks revenue source is. Their product is an ad platform, PERIOD! Over the last 15 years the number of choices (read ad platforms) have increased and thus the need to have that guaranteed source of income becomes vital.
Remember the Quiz Show scandals:
The firestorm that resulted, claimed Variety, “injured broadcasting more than anything ever before in the public eye.” Even the sainted Edward R. Murrow was sullied when it was revealed that his celebrity interview show, CBS’s Person to Person, provided guests with questions in advance. Perhaps most significantly in terms of the future shape of commercial television, the quiz show scandals made the networks forever leery of “single sponsorship” programming. (emphasis mine) Henceforth, they parceled out advertising time in fifteen, thirty, and sixty-second increments, wrenching control away from single sponsors and advertising agencies.
Forever is apparently not all that it’s cracked up to be.
If any of this surprises you, then it is very likely you haven’t been paying attention.
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