Super PACs Continue to Pour Money Into Media Coffers

Republican backers American Crossroads bought almost $8 million
worth of TV time at the end of last week for ads opposing the re-election of
the current president, according to
Sunlight Foundation tracking of Federal Election Commission filings.

That was followed Monday by more than half a million worth
of Web advertising in the same cause.

But the door swings both ways. The top Democrat-backing
Super PAC in terms of independent expenditures, Priorities USA Action, spent a
little over a million dollars last week on a TV buy opposing Mitt Romney.

According to Sunlight, Super PACs have spent a total of
$155.5 million on all independent expenditures in the current election cycle,
much of that on media buys and production with some going to postage and phone
calls and other expenses. The biggest spender has been the Romney-backing
Restore Our Future at 53.8 million, though most of its expenditures have been
on opposing Romney's Republican nomination opponents earlier in the campaign.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.