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Alcoholic Beverage
Advertising. Attempts to regulate beer and
wine advertising are continuing issues and
could cause a severe loss of advertising
revenue to Washington broadcasters. They could take the form of an
outright ban of hard liquor, or beer and
wine advertising on television, radio or
both; including in advertisements the same
warning “labels” that are required on
alcoholic beverage containers; or,
restrictions on the substantive content of
advertisements. Some of the restrictions might
cause brewers to eliminate broadcast spot
advertising in Washington state
altogether, while compliance by stations
with other requirements would be nearly
impossible (blocking network spots, for
example). WSAB will continue to lead the
opposition to any attempts to restrict or
remove alcoholic beverage advertising, as
an unconstitutional abridgement of
commercial free speech.
Legal
Notice Advertising. Minor changes in the statue
governing broadcaster requirements for
legal notice advertising will ease the
burden on both broadcasters and government
agencies. WSAB supports Secretary of State
request legislation that would modernize
the statutory provisions governing
broadcast participation in legal notice
advertising. The current statutory language is
more than 45 years old and contains
provisions that need updating. The bill would eliminate the
requirement that the announcement be read
by a station employee, which would conform
to the current practice of having the
announcement recorded by one person and
copies sent to every station. It would also modernize the
requirement for written confirmation that
the announcements were broadcast as
ordered.
Political Broadcasting. State political advertising
restrictions or requirements do not make
political advertising “better.” They often conflict with
requirements that either candidates or
broadcasters must meet under the political
broadcasting sections of the federal
Communications Act, and only add to the
already unacceptable level of confusion
among candidates about what elements their
spots must include. In addition, they typically run
afoul of the First Amendment protection
given political speech. WSAB opposes these kinds of bills.
Promotional
Contests of Chance. Promotional contests of chance
offer broadcasters an ideal way to present
added value to an advertiser’s
commercial announcements. Federal law permits broadcasters to
advertise such activities, so long as they
are authorized by State law. Washington law outlines the types
of promotional contests of chance that are
allowed. WSAB opposes any attempt to reduce
the number or kind of activities permitted
by State law.
State
Lottery Advertising. Prohibiting advertising of the
State Lottery will result in the
elimination of the State Lottery. The State Lottery spends a
significant amount of money advertising in
the electronic media. WSAB has supported the retention of
the ability of the State Lottery to
advertise. In the past, some legislators who
oppose the State Lottery have attempted to
reduce its effectiveness, in order to
provide a pretext for eliminating the
Lottery, by prohibiting the use of State
funds to advertise the Lottery. While WSAB takes no position on the
issue of whether there ought to be a State
Lottery, the Association does oppose the
strangulation of the Lottery by
eliminating broadcast advertising.
General Advertising Content
Restrictions. It is not appropriate to make
broadcasters liable for advertising
violations by their advertisers or to make
broadcasters the “advertising police.” Very often, legislation intended to
regulate a particular type of business
will include a section defining what may
and may not be said in advertising by such
a business. WSAB has never opposed restrictions
that prohibit “false and misleading”
advertising. However, WSAB does oppose content
specific restrictions which go beyond
prohibiting “false and misleading”
statements. WSAB opposes any attempt to make
broadcasters liable in the event that an
advertiser’s announcement violates a
substantive restriction.
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NEWS
GATHERING & REPORTING
Closure
of Government Agency Meetings &
Limitations on Access to Government Agency
Records. Open public meetings and access
to public records are the only way the
public and its surrogate “government
watchdog,” the press, have to make
government accountable to the citizens. In
every legislative session there are more
than a few bills introduced to restrict
the access of news reporters to meetings
of government agencies or to records kept
by government agencies. Meetings of governing bodies of
public agencies and the records created
and held by government agencies are
presumed to be open and available to the
public. Special interest groups continually
try to exempt particular records from
public scrutiny for their own private
purposes; government agency governing
bodies often seek to add to the existing
list of reasons to close their meetings to
the public. WSAB reviews each proposed
exemption to the Open Records Act and
opposes those proposed exemptions that
would prevent broadcast journalists from
holding the government accountable for its
actions.
WSAB supports legislation to modify
the Open Records Act to overturn a recent
court decision (Hangartner v. City of
Seattle) that held that expanded the
ability of government agencies to refuse
to provide access to records based on
claim of attorney-client privilege. WSAB participated as amicus curiae
in the Hangartner case, supporting
reporters’ access to records.
Reporter’s Shield Law. A reporter should not be subject
to contempt of court for refusing to
reveal the identity of a confidential
source. 31 states and the District of
Columbia have passed legislation that
would protect a reporter from charges of
contempt of court, and possible
incarceration, for refusing to reveal a
confidential source or other material or
information sought by civil or criminal
litigants. However, the only protection
currently provided by Washington law is a
qualified privilege for the protection of
confidential sources, and that is based on
case law, not statute. There is no provision in Washington
common law for the protection of
reporter’s notes, outtakes or other
reporter work product. WSAB supports legislation that
would create reporter’s shield law that
provides absolute protection from
compelled disclosure of confidential
sources and absolute or tightly controlled
qualified protection from the compelled
disclosure of reporter’s work product.
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TAXES
Broadcasters
B & O Taxation. Broadcasters pay their fair
share of B & O tax. The
U. S. Supreme Court in Fisher’s Blend
Station v. Washington Tax Commission (1936) required a station’s revenue to
be apportioned for taxation purposes so
that only revenue which is generated
within the State of Washington is subject
to tax. Current law allows broadcasters to
deduct a standard amount (62%) of gross
revenue, representing national, regional
and network advertising sales, or a
station may itemize these deductions, in
order to protect their interstate income
from taxation. In addition, a station with out of
state audience may also deduct the
percentage of out of state audience from
gross revenue in determining B & O
tax. The
effect of eliminating these deductions
would be to nearly triple a
broadcaster’s B & O tax burden. WSAB opposes any attempt to remove
or reduce broadcasters’ B & O tax
deductions.
Sales
Tax on Advertising. Prior experience, particularly
in Florida, shows that a sales tax on
advertising is completely
counterproductive. It is impossible to administer to
ensure that the transaction is only taxed
once. Advertising increases demand for
products and increases retail sales,
therefore, increasing the collection of
the sales tax; decreasing advertising by
taxing its sale will decrease sales tax
collections. Local businesses will end up
shouldering the entire burden of the
retail sales tax because the U. S.
Constitution prohibits taxing out of state
transactions. Elected officials are always
searching for new sources of revenue and
legislators have from time to time
proposed adding the sales tax to services
generally, or advertising in particular. WSAB opposes a sales tax on the
sale of advertising time, or generally on
services.
Streamlined Sales Tax: Definition
of Digital Equivalent of Tangible
Property. Establishing a streamlined
administration of the sales tax should not
permit the taxation of advertising time
sold by digital broadcasters. Many states, including Washington,
have adopted a uniform law dealing with a
streamlined sales tax regime. The overall project is ongoing and
additional provisions are being developed
for presentation to state legislatures. It is intended to revenue neutral
to each state and not to extend the sales
tax to additional transactions. However, one of the definitions the
committee working on further development
of the Streamlined Sales Tax is crafting
has to do with the digital equivalent of
the delivery of tangible personal
property, which is subject to sales tax. WSAB has been a member of a
consortium of state broadcasters
associations in sales tax states that have
been working on ensuring that the language
in the uniform law that will be submitted
to state legislatures contains wording
that will not permit a state to slip in a
backdoor tax on broadcast advertising
simply because it is delivered by digital
radio or television. WSAB would support a bill that
contains the appropriate protective
language; otherwise, the Association
opposes the bill unless and until the
language is suitable.
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OTHER
ISSUES
Priority
Status for Broadcast Stations in Fuel
Emergencies. After Hurricane Katrina,
Mississippi broadcasters had trouble with
obtaining fuel for station vehicles and
generators. Apparently, FEMA put a stop to fuel
deliveries to stations, saying
broadcasters are #7 on the priorities
list. It is possible that WSAB could have
legislation introduced that would add to
current local emergency management
statutory language a requirement that
local emergency plans include language
establishing the following services as
having priority for fuel distribution
during a locally declared emergency: Police, fire, hospitals and other
related emergency services; local
utilities; radio and television stations;
and, cable television systems.
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