It’s clear that the FCC is cracking down...
It’s clear that the FCC is cracking down on violations of all of its rules on programming matters, a broadcast attorney said. Recent cases on sponsorship violation enforcement include the $44,000 fine issued to Cumulus Media (CD Feb 13 p7).…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
“These cases make it clear that, if a programming rule is violated, you can expect little mercy from the FCC,” said David Oxenford of Wilkinson Barker. Regarding the forfeiture order against Cumulus, the commission rejected any reduction in the proposed fine based on the fact that it was an inadvertent employee error, he said in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1or1ob6). The FCC faulted the licensee “for not turning itself in to the FCC, and found that the corrective actions did not mitigate the fact that the violations occurred, and thus gave no reason to reduce the amount of the fine,” he said. “So be very careful to observe all the FCC’s programming rules."