Are the television networks to blame for the massive amounts of money flowing into political campaigns?  Actor Kevin Spacey believes that charging for campaign ads has created a rush-to-the-lobbyists mentality for politicians looking for the resources to win political office.  Spacey tells CNS News that the networks should offer free air time as a public service to politicians — as long as they produce “legitimate” ads:

“I think it discourages people to feel as good about public service as they should and I think that this film is attempting to, in a comedic and entertaining way, highlight some of the hypocrisy that we’ve seen that certainly we saw during this particular case and that is much as that they’d like to pretend that they’ve cleaned up the lobbying industry by throwing this guy in jail, they haven’t. It’s still got too much influence and you know, to some degree I blame the networks.”

Spacey says television networks should run political advertisements for free as a public service.

“I think if network television started to agree to run legitimate ads that you knew were true, if you’re going to say something about a rival, it can’t just be dirt. I think if they started to run these ads for free and were a part of being a public service, well then maybe some of this corruption, some of this insistence on raising ridiculous amounts of money, primarily for television ads would go away and maybe we would start electing people on ideas instead of on how much money they had in their coffers.”

Don’t blame the networks, Kevin. They can’t offer free air time, because campaign finance laws passed by Congress would make those in-kind political donations and could get them and the campaigns into serious legal trouble. They can’t even offer discounts for so-called legitimate ads, presumably those that only talk about ideas rather than opponents.

However, there is nothing inherently illegitimate about comparative advertising, just as there is nothing inherently illegitimate about lobbying.  Both are necessary, and both can be abused.  Spacey notes that much in his CNS interview when he dances around whether lobbying should be stopped and whether Barack Obama should have hired dozens of lobbyists in his administration.  Politicians, especially incumbents, should have to account for their track record in elections, which is the only opportunity voters have to apply direct accountability to them.

The problem with Spacey’s well-intentioned proposition is that it makes a certain select group of individuals the arbiters of legitimacy.  The same people who control the media narratives would also control the campaign narratives.  To channel my inner Allahpundit, what could go wrong?  Besides, in the last few cycles the campaigns usually focus on positive presentations while outside groups run the attack campaigns. On top of that, why should networks have to relinquish high-priced ad space for politicos?

Spacey’s proposal would do next to nothing to resolve the actual problem, which results directly from campaign finance regulations that force people to send money to outside groups instead of candidates and political parties.  The proper method of reform would be to eliminate contribution limits and revoke the tax-exempt status for those outside groups that run campaign television ads; they have no right to a tax exemption.  I don’t mean to be too tough on Spacey, who seems to be offering this idea both off the cuff and in good faith, but it’s a far more dangerous idea than the current situation.