Ban on Political Ads Not Set

The U.S. Appeal Court made a major decision and chose not to set a federal ban on political advertisements that would be aired on both television and radio stations. And, with this decision, the radio stations may end up being flooded with upcoming campaign advertisements as the elections are steadily approaching as each month passes by and will officially take place during the month of November in 2012.

There was a 2-1 vote when it came down to the possible ban but it was believed that a ban like this would actually go against the First Amendment Rights and free speech. By banning these political advertisements, they would be preventing the broadcasters from being able to run political advertisements that they believe in. The court believes that a ban like this was simply too broad, so they decided that it would not be set.

The Judge, Carlos Bea, said that he believes the public deserves to hear political speech and that banning political speech would be a violation of the First Amendment. He believes that these advertisements do not pose a threat and are not encouraging those who hear to go out and buy products or rely on services. Instead, they are just listening to campaigns of different political candidates who are hoping for votes. Banning the advertisements, he says, would be preventing the general public from political broadcasting.

A lawyer for a non-profit organization, Walter Diercks, says that he is glad that the ban was not set. He believes that putting a ban on such advertisements is not right and that the government should not have the right to decide what type of content is appropriate for the television and radio broadcasts. Of course, during the elections, the radio broadcasts and television may become overpopulated with tons of political campaigns but this is the norm for elections and it is not something that would last forever, which is something people need to understand.

There are some people, however, who are not satisfied that a ban was not put on these campaigns, believing that these types of advertisements have the opportunity to really change television and radio broadcasts, spamming airwaves with political messages. There are some people who simply are frightened about what could happen since a ban is not being set on political advertisements.

There are some people on one side of the fence and some people who are on the other side of the fence. Many people do not mind the political advertisements but there are some people who are simply tired of the flood of political advertisements from different candidates that tend to take place during an election year on the television and on radio broadcasts too.