How political campaigns can use news clips in ads without news outlets' permission

This election season, countless political ads have run on TVs and online, and some of these commercials might have featured clips from newscasts. The familiar tactic sees short clips taken from newscasts with headlines or statements that campaigns then use to support their platform or messaging.

An ad running in recent months from North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson featured a few seconds from a WCNC Charlotte news report on crime. While the original report itself did not reference Robinson’s political opponent North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein, Robinson's political ad used it to attack Stein’s effectiveness against crime.

The ad prompted some viewers to ask whether the Robinson campaign had to get permission from WCNC Charlotte to use a snippet from the newscast.