Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post reports that the Kerry campaign has been preparing, and releasing to television networks, commercials which never actually run as paid spots. Instead, the network news divisions run the ads for free.

The tactic is especially favored in instances where a response to a Bush ad is desired.

Of course, this is not the first time that "free media" exposure of political television commercials is the desired use. And both camps have taken advantage of the practice of TV news shows running the latest ads as a news item.

But in the past, a pro—forma buy of time in one or two local markets usually provided a fig leaf of legitimacy. Perhaps it is time for networks to inquire about actually advertising dollars backing an ad before running one. Either that, or simply start to recognize that instead of sending spokesmen for a talking head interview, campaigns are now releasing the political equivalent of music videos to present their talking points. That not only leverages images on top of words, it also avoids the possibility of awkward questions being asked of the talking head.

Hat tip: Ed Lasky

Thomas Lifson  10 20 04