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FCC Investigating Audacy's KCBS

T

TheBigA

Chairman Carr is very busy investigating broadcast media: He's investigating public broadcasting, payola in commercial radio, and 60 Minutes. Now he's added all news KCBS in San Francisco.

radioink.com

FCC Investigating Audacy AM for Airing ICE Agents’ Locations - Radio Ink

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has launched an investigation into KCBS-AM after the Audacy station broadcast details of undercover ICE agents.
radioink.com radioink.com

He's taking a very broad view of what "public interest" means. If you air a quote from someone they don't like, they can start an investigation on you.

As I posted in another thread, this story was reported on numerous local TV stations and news outlets. The only station being investigated in KCBS. Wonder why. ICE agents are traveling with several embedded TV crews, including one from Dr. Phil. They're not being investigated.

The FCC was not created to be the censorship police. Previous chairmen have said that. This one is on a different mission.
 
Trump said Christians would only have to vote for him "once" at a Christian convention. He later said he meant he would have everything "fixed" so we won't have to vote again. I am afraid he really ment "get to vote again" instead.
 
Interesting.

What could the FCC do as punishment? I doubt KCBS' license could be revoked (could it?), but I'm sure a fine of some sort would be levied?

c
 
cc333 said:
What could the FCC do as punishment? I doubt KCBS' license could be revoked (could it?), but I'm sure a fine of some sort would be levied?
Click to expand...

The first question is what would be the basis for punishment? Interviewing a community group? I thought the FCC wants stations to interact with the local community. The entire accusation came from twitter. No actual audio. But that's all it takes to start an investigation.
 
TheBigA said:
The first question is what would be the basis for punishment?
Click to expand...
From what I can tell of the new administration so far, they don't need any basis other than whatever they decide to make up.

We seem to have somehow fallen into some sort of alternate reality where it's OK for the US Government to make specious and vindictive claims against the media for basically any reason. Such is a hallmark of authoritarianism, which is unfortunately quite normal and commonplace in many other parts of the world (notable and well known examples include North Korea, China and Russia), but here?

This is new, and I don't think it will be easy to predict what comes next.

Hopefully I'm just being alarmist and this will amount to nothing.

c
 
TheBigA said:
Chairman Carr is very busy investigating broadcast media: He's investigating public broadcasting, payola in commercial radio, and 60 Minutes. Now he's added all news KCBS in San Francisco.

radioink.com

FCC Investigating Audacy AM for Airing ICE Agents’ Locations - Radio Ink

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has launched an investigation into KCBS-AM after the Audacy station broadcast details of undercover ICE agents.
radioink.com radioink.com

He's taking a very broad view of what "public interest" means. If you air a quote from someone they don't like, they can start an investigation on you.

As I posted in another thread, this story was reported on numerous local TV stations and news outlets. The only station being investigated in KCBS. Wonder why. ICE agents are traveling with several embedded TV crews, including one from Dr. Phil. They're not being investigated.

The FCC was not created to be the censorship police. Previous chairmen have said that. This one is on a different mission.
Click to expand...
Also other Audacy owned all News stations covered ice in the same way KCBS Radio did that. Here are some from KYW and WINS radio that covered similar stuff. What happens to KCBS Radio will happen at other Audacy owned stations all for political points.


www.audacy.com

Trump deportation chief 'looking into' Murphy's remark about inviting undocumented woman to live at his NJ home

President Donald Trump’s border czar said Monday night that he’s “looking into” comments Gov. Phil Murphy recently made about an undocumented woman living above the garage at his home in New Jersey.
www.audacy.com www.audacy.com

www.audacy.com

Trump's border czar is 'looking into' remarks Murphy made about undocumented woman living at his NJ home

President Donald Trump’s border czar said Monday night that he’s “looking into” comments Gov. Phil Murphy recently made about an undocumented woman living above the garage at his home in New Jersey.
www.audacy.com www.audacy.com

www.audacy.com

Person shot fireworks at LAPD helicopter during deportation protests: LAPD

The anti-deportation rally in downtown Los Angeles resulted in a large number of protestors being detained and identified on Monday. LAPD Commander Lillian Carranza told KNX News’ Pete Demetriou protestors became agitated around 4:30 p.m.
www.audacy.com www.audacy.com
 
The FCC doesn't have to do anything. They just have to make broadcasters worry. And, lest we forget, the FCC kept slapping fines on radio stations which carried Howard Stern until they forced him off terrestrial radio.
 
Mark Roberts said:
Coverage from KQED-FM:
Click to expand...

From the story:

In the Fox News interview, Carr also described East San José, where the ICE actions were happening, as an area known for violent gang activity.
Right-wing influencer Andy Ngo used a similar description of the area in a post on social media platform X on the same night as the KCBS reporting.
Click to expand...

That's because Carr based his whole view on this from Andy Ngo. This government is basing its actions on biased sources. They would never accept such a thing if the shoe was on the other foot. If you want to have a free press, you need to demand this government seek out the truth.
 
Jean Luc said:
And, lest we forget, the FCC kept slapping fines on radio stations which carried Howard Stern until they forced him off terrestrial radio.
Click to expand...
All of which was justified because Stern did not like the legal restrictions and preferred the satellite deal.
 
DavidEduardo said:
All of which was justified because Stern did not like the legal restrictions and preferred the satellite deal.
Click to expand...
And Howard Stern wasn't exactly Walter Cronkite.

But this is new. And very real if the media (including and most especially radio) doesn't bring this threat to public awareness. Because next, it will be what music will be allowed.

How much "YMCA" can you handle?
 
Bongwater said:
And Howard Stern wasn't exactly Walter Cronkite.

But this is new. And very real if the media (including and most especially radio) doesn't bring this threat to public awareness. Because next, it will be what music will be allowed.
Click to expand...
There has always been some consideration on obscenity / profanity in music, as evidenced by the overall "Seven Dirty Words" ruling that set vague but real boundaries on what could be said... or sung... on the radio.
Bongwater said:
How much "YMCA" can you handle?
Click to expand...
I guess I am the only person here who actually liked the later 70's disco era. It was fun music, despite not having enough maturation to survive.
 
DavidEduardo said:
There has always been some consideration on obscenity / profanity in music, as evidenced by the overall "Seven Dirty Words" ruling that set vague but real boundaries on what could be said... or sung... on the radio.
Click to expand...

That rule was made at the time when music was made for radio airplay because it aided in sales. That's no longer the case. Record labels say they don't benefit from radio airplay.
 
A long time ago I heard the term "regulation by raised eyebrow", wherein the FCC would hint that a particular action by broadcasters would be looked upon favorably (or unfavorably) at renewal time, even though no actual FCC rule applied. The implication was that broadcasters who engaged in unfavored actions might find their renewal application being examined more closely than it otherwise would be -- and even though they would still ultimately expect to get their license renewed, they really didn't want to face the additional hassle and delay.

This was back in a day (the 60s, and maybe into the 70s) when the FCC was far more activist in nature than it has been in recent years. It was also a day when the tone at the FCC was decidedly liberal, so the demands tended to reflect that political leaning.

Carr seems to be taking it one step further, as his approach seems more akin to "regulation by raised whip" than "regulation by raised eyebrow". And the subjects that seem to motivate him seem to crap on the First Amendment in a way that the FCC of the 60s and 70s never did -- back then, the objections were generally about what didn't get broadcast (ie, programming appealing to minority interests and concerns) versus what did. Carr, in contrast, seems to be directly attacking the editorial judgement of news broadcasters.

This is scary stuff.
 


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