This has nothing to do with the content of the messages.  TV stations have been required to document and maintain publicly accessible records of political ad contracts since 1938.  In theory, all you had to do was mosey on over to the station and follow their public access procedures to view the docs.

 

Personally, I'm a lazy bastard and have never been curious enough about who paid how much for an ad to go through all that hullaballoo and rigamarole. However, if all I need is access to the inter-webs and I really want to know which red/blue affiliated group was slamming a particular blue/red candidate or policy, and how much was spent, why not?

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