violence = 'personal or social domination of any kind'

[Victor Steinbok]

Actually, the law places an obligation on the media through which the
message is delivered, not on the candidate. Last I heard--which may be
not entirely correct, but not wholly wrong--the "approved" snipped
places an obligation on the station/channel that transmits to charge a
discounted political campaign rate. Without the snippet, the rate
depends on the hour and the program and is not discounted.

There is a different obligation on the candidate that is indirectly
related to this situation--the campaign cannot coordinate anything with
external groups that broadcast messages on its behalf. So, by certifying
that s/he approves the message, the candidate accepts responsibility for
the ad as coming from his/her campaign. Without the snippet, it's
independent expenditure and could come from anywhere.

The gray area is how to handle items that are actually produced by the
campaign but are not claimed by it. I am not sure there is a legal
obligation against that--although, with money usually tight, there is a
great incentive to get a discount rate. More often than not, such
unclaimed pieces are viewed as morally questionable--which is usually
why they are not claimed. At worst, such messages may suggest that they
come from one campaign when they are actually generated by the opponent.
But even that may be more a question of ethics than of law. I don't know
enough about election law in different jurisdictions, but there does not
seem to be universal prohibition against the practice (see under "Karl
Rove's dirty tricks").

     VS-)

On 11/13/2010 5:17 PM, Bill Palmer wrote:
> OK, then what about the politician who actually delivers the message and
> then makes the ritual announcement that he approved it?
>
> Isn't the fact that he is one doing the talking proof enough that he
> approved it.  Does the law require them to do that?
>
>
> Bill Palmer

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