RALEIGH — Rep. Cary Allred, an Alamance County Republican, has had the temerity to ask a question that strikes at the very heart of what it means to be a North Carolinian in the 21st century: could we actually survive the end of publicly funded public service announcements featuring our governors, attorneys general, state treasurers, secretaries of state, and other elected officials?
Allred has filed a bill to end the practice, which helped then-Attorney Gen. Mike Easley clinch the Democratic nomination for governor against Lt. Gov. Dennis Wicker in 2000. More recently, Attorney General Roy Cooper, State Treasurer Richard Moore, and Secretary of State Elaine Marshall have gotten into the act. At a committee meeting, some Democrats understandably defended the practice, as it has primarily been used by members of their party, by arguing that the causes to which the PSAs have been devoted — finding the owners of unclaimed clash or combatting telemarketing fraud, for example — are worthy ones.
It’s true. Allred has a point, of course, because these are basically just publicly funded campaign ads (they usually tap settlement funds and the like rather than tax revenues, but since the former would otherwise go to offset the latter there’s no practical difference). They are essentially being used to promote incumbents for re-election to their current jobs or a promotion to a higher one.
But his critics have a point, too. I mean, can you imagine how North Carolinians would avoid getting ripped off without being warned against it by politicians?
For instance, I guess that the ads could feature consumers who had actually been defrauded, offering their testimonials and giving their fellow citizens tips on how to avoid fraud and abuse. But unless someone holds a public office, why would viewers pay any attention?
Or the ads could use dramatizations, sort of like “America’s Most Wanted,” to demonstrate how certain criminals act or how to use the Internet to find one’s unclaimed cash. But why settle for paid unknown actors when you can be talked to by better-paid, somewhat-known actors who play their roles for four years at a time?
Or perhaps the money could be used to hire additional law-enforcement officers and investigators to ferret out the most aggressive networks of spammers and slammers. But these efforts would receive little publicity unless and until there was a conviction or two. How can North Carolinians be reassured that their government is looking out for them unless their leaders get public money to tell them that?
Rep. Allred’s heart may be in the right place, but I’m just not sure he’s thought this thing through. Suddenly cut off from regular contact with their beloved protectors in Raleigh, North Carolinians would start to get antsy and lose confidence. They’d go out to eat less, buy less, perhaps even fear to creep outside their homes at all. The retail and service sectors of our economy would suffer, as would the fortunes of certain politically connected advertising and production companies during the fallow periods between election cycles. Several jobs, perhaps dozens, are at stake. Sure, the governor could perhaps tide them over with cash grants from his newly replenished recruitment fund, but how long would that last?
No, I’m afraid that the plaintive wails and cries of woe that would arise from the mountains to the coast, from the trendiest office building to the lowliest cottage, would be so deafening as to harm the hearing of many vulnerable populations, especially children, and drown out the sirens of emergency vehicles, thus endangering us all, especially children.
The risk is just too great.
Hood is president of the John Locke Foundation and publisher of Carolina Journal.