Is it time to revisit the Communications Act of 1934?

I came across this after thinking about the recent elections. The Hispanic vote enabled Republican wins in South Florida. Our community believes that the democratic opponents are ‘socialists.’

Well, this is a lie. They are all undisputedly capitalists. But EVERY Republican candidate made a doomsday ad with these outrageous claims. Spanish-language TV played these ads non-stop.

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An except from “Candidates can lie in political ads, experts say”

BY Jon Delano / Oct. 18, 2022 / 7:29 PM / CBS PITTSBURG

You can usually count on commercials about products and services on TV to be fairly truthful -- that's the law. But the same is not true for political campaign ads.

The Communications Act of 1934 says clearly that broadcasters have no power of censorship over any legally qualified candidate for public office, says election attorney Zachary Wallen. 

"Broadcast stations are required by their license to accept candidate ads," Wallen said. "If a broadcast station refused a candidate ad, they could conceivably lose their license."

If a candidate lies about another candidate, a defamation lawsuit is possible but it would never get resolved before election day.

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Clearly, this is completely unsustainable in the current political climate. Any party can sway an audience with outright lies with very little consequence- as long as they have the resources to spread their message… truth or not. Weave in Putin’s active social media disinformation campaign and we have our current political disaster.

What should we do moving forward?