Candidates can lie in political ads, experts say

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - With just three weeks to go before the mid-term elections, the negative attack ads are ramping up, but they're not necessarily truthful. 

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. So what about political ads on the internet and social media? 

"As a service provider, they're given a broader range to be able to accept or reject from candidates and outside groups based on the content of those ads," said Wallen.

Some social media forums are more likely to censor than others and many have their own biases that leave voters pretty much on their own.

"In the end, it's really up to the individual to decide what's true and what's false in negative political ads," Wallen said, adding, "a voter has to decide for themselves what they believe about a particular candidate."   

Robert Morris communications professor Anthony Moretti says maybe you should just ignore the political ads.  

"Understand at the end of the day, a political ad is designed to hit an emotional hot button," he said. 

Perhaps another way to approach this is: generally believe the positive stuff that candidates say about themselves and really double-check the negative stuff they say about their opponent. 

"Don't rely on a political ad to make up your mind on who you're going to vote for," Moretti said.