Senate Commerce Committee chair John McCain and FCC chair Michael Powell cited a report by USC Annenberg's Norman Lear Center in a June 16 letter to the heads of all the broadcast networks. The Lear Center Local News Archive report found that stations aired nearly four times as many political ads as campaign stories during local news broadcasts in the 2002 election. In their letter, McCain and Powell challenged the networks to provide more information on political issues during this election year. "Stories on campaign platforms and in depth coverage of candidate debates truly assist voters in making an educated choice," they wrote. The Lear Center report was also cited on June 2 in House Energy & Commerce Committee testimony by Gloria Tristani, former Federal Communications Commissioner.
Read the McCain and Powell letter
Lear Center report