CHARLOTTE, N.C. — This election season, countless political ads have run on TVs and online, and some of these commercials might have featured clips from newscasts. The familiar tactic sees short clips taken from newscasts with headlines or statements that campaigns then use to support their platform or messaging.
An ad running in recent months from North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson featured a few seconds from a WCNC Charlotte news report on crime. While the original report itself did not reference Robinson’s political opponent North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, Robinson's political ad used it to attack Stein’s effectiveness against crime.
The ad prompted some viewers to ask whether the Robinson campaign had to get permission from WCNC Charlotte to use a snippet from the newscast.
THE QUESTION
Do political campaigns have to ask permission from news stations or newscasters before sampling clips from newscasts for an ad?
THE SOURCES
- U.S. Copyright law
- Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
- Scott Huffmon, Political Science professor at Winthrop University
THE ANSWER
No, political campaigns do not have to get permission from the owner of the news clip before using it in an ad. Furthermore, TV stations have to run the ad if it comes from the candidate itself.
WHAT WE FOUND
WCNC Charlotte did not grant the Robinson campaign to use the clip. However, experts say, in this case, permission is not needed.
“Based on the Fair Use doctrine, campaigns can pull public videos, newscasts and use them,” Huffmon said.
The Fair Use Doctrine is a legal framework that outlines under which circumstances copyright-protected works, like a newscast, could be used without a license. Those circumstances could be criticism, commentary, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research, and there are multiple factors dictating whether sampling from the work counts as fair use.
“One rule is they have to increase its value… or give commentary to it, which of course, a political ad is, which is why political ads can freely use a newscast,” Huffmon said.
Furthermore, FCC regulations stipulate that TV stations cannot censor material from a political candidate and must accept ads from all parties, with reasonable access, equal opportunity access, and at the lowest unit rate.
Contact Vanessa Ruffes at vruffes@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.