Anybody who really enjoys watching political ads, please raise your hand.
Although you may not like them much, there is one group out there in the community that loves them. They're the folks at the local television stations, as their ad revenues soar during campaign season.
But until recently, if you wanted to know specifically how much, say, WFTS, the local ABC affiliate, was making on sales of air time to Barack Obama, Mitt Romney or any other candidate, you had to physically go down to Himes Boulevard in West Tampa and request those records. Not exactly a user-friendly way to go.
But on a 2-1 vote last month, the Federal Communications Commission ruled that TV stations must put political advertising data online (the two who supported the move were the two Democrats, with the lone Republican dissenting).
And whattaya know? The TV stations aren't very fond of providing such full disclosure, claiming such regulations are "burdensome" and saying it is unfair to impose requirements on broadcast television that don't apply to its competitors in cable and satellite.
