Sucker bait

National | "Free" television time for candidates comes with a high liberal price tag | Bob Jones

In an era of multimillion-dollar congressional campaigns, it seems like every candidate's dream: free, unedited television airtime to make your case directly to the voters.

It certainly seemed like a dream to Sylvia Warner, whose candidate, Mike Rogers, is locked in a bitter, expensive battle for an open seat in Lansing, Mich. But when Ms. Warner saw the wording of the question to which candidates had to respond in the first free television spot, she started having second thoughts about her dream. "Why," the TV station wanted to know, "do we spend twice as much money on incarceration as we do on education?"

The question immediately put Mr. Rogers, a Republican, on the defensive. Education is typically a Democrat-friendly issue, especially when juxtaposed against a liberal pet peeve like prison spending. When pollsters ask such loaded questions, they call it "push polling"—i.e., phrasing the survey to elicit a desired response. But when TV stations ask loaded or biased questions, they call it public service. It's a "service" voters may see a lot more of in the future.