Former
New York Times Executive Editor Max Frankel in the
New York Times Magazine, March 30, 1997:
The market way to fairness is to impose a hefty tax on political TV
advertising. Paul Taylor, an energetic reformer, urges a tax of 50
percent. He would use the proceeds to underwrite vouchers, to be
distributed among political parties and candidates for the purchase of
TV time in any market. That's a halfway measure. Better yet, in my
view, would be a 100 percent surcharge on every political TV and radio
commercial to pay for an opponent's immediate response in the same
market, to the same audience. A stiff tax would assure that the more a
candidate spent on TV, the greater the subsidy for his or her rivals.
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