Obama Wants to Go Live

After Hillary Clinton announced she will buy two minutes of air time on every evening newscast in Iowa, Barack Obama wants to go even further with either a two- or five-minute live campaign commercial, to be aired simultaneously on all the networks. The stunt, which “West Wing” viewers will recognize from the show’s last season, has station managers scratching their heads.

Apparently it’s just not that easy to coordinate five minutes of prime-time air time across competing networks.

(via Political Wire)

ABC News:

Clinton’s campaign announced Thursday that she would buy a two-minute block of time on every 6 p.m. newscast in the state.

Obama’s camp countered by requesting either a two- or five-minute window of time during the stations’ local newscasts, during the period between local news and primetime programming, or during primetime. The campaign asked if the senator could make his pitch live via satellite.

But finding five minutes of primetime television real estate for a presidential candidate on the night before Iowa votes is tricky for local stations—and potentially legally dicey.

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abcnews.com