Iannuzzi, an independent challenging incumbent Third District Councilor Marilyn Devaney, appeared on the show hosted by former Warren Shaw from 8:05 to 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 9.
He paid $490 for the 25-minute segment.
Iannuzzi and the owner of station WCAP, AM 980, say there’s nothing unusual about selling airtime on a weekly talk show, but media critic and Northeastern University journalism professor Dan Kennedy told wickedlocal.com it sounds unorthodox to him.
“As long as there’s full disclosure, I don’t really see any ethical problem on the part of the candidate,” Kennedy said, “but if he’s paying to appear on a talk show, that strikes me as a very unusual arrangement, and I’ve just never heard of anything like that before.
WCAP owner Clark Smidt says it’s standard practice at his station to sell airtime in the 60 days leading up to an election, when a great many candidates request time on the station.
Smidt said requiring payment was a way to “level the playing field” and avoid creating a situation where the station would be required to give free time to every candidate in every race. He said there would be full disclosure during the show that it was a paid appearance.
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