The question comes from Joe Mirabella, who writes at Seattlepi.com:

In 2009 during the referendum campaign to keep domestic partnerships, I interviewed an FCC Political attorney to clarify the issue for our local radio stations who thought they were required to air the misleading anti-gay ads:

I called the FCC and spoke to Mark Berlin an attorney in the Political Office of the FCC, about referendums and asked him whether the radio stations were required to air the reject 71 the ad. He said, “Our political rules are about candidates not referendums or initiatives. There are no equal time rules, so [the station] does not have to provide time at all if it doesn’t want to.”

The rules have not changed since 2009, so now our local television stations are profiting from ads that our misleading the community to oppose fundamental rights for gays and lesbians. The ads are complete falsehoods as Joel Connelly pointed out yesterday.....KING 5, KIRO 7, KOMO 4, KCPQ 13 and state’s other television stations need to ask themselves, “Do we really want to profit from lies that hurt our gay and lesbian neighbors, family, friends, and colleagues? Are we that greedy? Or do we want to continue the otherwise positive relationship we have with this important member of our community for years to come?”

Give them a call to politely suggest they to stop profiting from the Reject 74 campaign’s lies:

KING 5 (206) 448-5555

KIRO 7 (206) 728-7777

KOMO 4 (206) 404-4000

KCPQ 13 (206)-674-1305