Sunlight Foundation

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent federal agency that (among many responsibilities) requires broadcasters to publicly release their political file, the collection of details on political ads. Unfortunately for a cast majority of broadcasters, the definition of ‘public’ means paper forms sitting in file cabinets spread across the country at the offices of the each station.

The political files include information on which groups are buying political ads, which candidates the ads support and when and where the ads aired. The Sunlight Foundation is urging the FCC to join the 21st century and require that all stations post this information online.

• Sunlight's Position

  • Sunlight urges FCC to keep open the political ad file

  • FCC Needs a Centralized Database of Information on Political Ads

  • Broadcasters to FCC: Act in Our Interest, not the Public Interest

    Sunlight’s letter calling on the FCC to support online transparency.

  • Sunlight Labs: Broadcasters' Public Files Should Be Published Online (and it's absurd that we're even having this conversation)

• Projects

  • Political Ad Sleuth

    Help unlock political files at TV stations and post the information online.

  • Ad Hawk

    A free mobile and web app that identifies information about who is buying political ads using audio fingerprint technology. The app provides valuable contextual information about the candidate, super PAC and issues ads airing on TV and radio.

• Reporting

  • Reporting Group: FCC ruling could exempt 160 markets from posting political ad data

    A map of stations exempted from FCC online reporting requirements

  • Sunlight Blog Posts on the FCC

• Editorials

  • Sun-Sentinel: New FCC rule could shed light on political attack ads

  • Asheville Citizen-Times: Big-money secrecy hurts democracy

• Articles

  • Broadcasting & Cable: Sunlight Foundation Disses Broadcaster Political File Compromise