Kathleen Hall Jamieson on Campaign Misinformation | Moyers & Company | BillMoyers.com

KATHLEEN HALL JAMIESON: That’s true. And here’s the reason that we should try to make them accurate before they, before they go on the air. They, right now there’s one small place in the environment that individuals can actually act and potentially make a difference. Local broadcast stations have the right to refuse third party ads. They only have to accept ads by bona fide candidates for federal office, that would be presidential candidates among others.

BILL MOYERS: They don’t have to take ads from super PACs?

KATHLEEN HALL JAMIESON: From super PACs, that’s correct. And if they take them they have an absolute right to say, "You prove every statement in that ad before I’m going to put it on my airwaves and let into my community’s living rooms."

BILL MOYERS: But Kathleen, you know that those station managers reap a windfall out there from a presidential– from an election year like this. They’re not going to turn down these ads.

KATHLEEN HALL JAMIESON: I grant you that. The financial incentive is just too strong, but there is win-win. They can insist on the accuracy of what they air.

What Flackcheck.org is doing is taking the fact checking content from the major fact checkers and posting it against the ads they’re airing in the various primaries right now. So a station manager can go and look at our website and see for example, here are the ads that are airing right now and here are the deceptions in the ads. They can now go back to the super PACs and say, "Correct those or I’m not going to let you continue to air." You can fix these ads to make them accurate, station manager.

BILL MOYERS: The station manager can?

KATHLEEN HALL JAMIESON: The station manager can, and has an absolute right under existing regulation. And so what we would like is every citizen in every media market to contact by email and by phone, and we’re going to be posting a way to do this on our website. Contact the station managers, contact the stations to say, "We want you to insist on the accuracy of the third party ads you air not just for the presidency, but across the board.

And then when it comes into our living rooms, we will know that you protected us from that form of air pollution. It’s a little things that citizens can do and station managers, but I think those station managers care about their communities, they live in the communities there after all. And I think they’d like to perform this public service.

Kathleen Hall Jamieson on Campaign Misinformation | Moyers & Company | BillMoyers.com