[BC] NPR violation of 73.1206?

[Robert Meuser]

The only saving grace with phone violations is it is really only the person who 
answered the phone who can complain as compared to 1000s of organized right wing 
zealots.

R

Mike McCarthy wrote:
> First, you are correct, the live person answering the phone MUST be off 
> the air and polled before they are put on the air/recorded if they did 
> not make the call.  That rule has been violated many times and licensees 
> fined big time each time a complaint was filed by an ambushed caller.
> 
> As for the licensee's culpability, they ARE the fiduciary holder of the 
> license.  Therefore THEY (as in each and every licensee) ARE liable.  
> There are a number of precedents to this.  Most notably, the Janet 
> Jackson wardrobe "malfunction" as well as countless Howard Stern and 
> Mancow Muller indecency fines where the network wasn't fined.  However 
> in the Jackson event, new rules/policies were put into place which do 
> make the networks liable for indecent programming supplied to affiliates.
> 
> If you are a NPR affiliate who broadcast that story live or didn't block 
> the live unpolled caller, you'd better have your counsel contact NPR and 
> express great concern about them putting your good license and finances 
> at risk.  Further, all good network agreements should have a 
> indemnification clause which protects the stations against any liability 
> put forward by the network. This is a text book case of why that 
> indemnification is necessary.
> 
> MM
> 
> 
> 
> At 07:30 AM 11/23/2005 -0800, Harold Hallikainen wrote
> 
>> This morning's Morning Edition on NPR had a story about getting through
>> telephone menu trees quickly. They gave a demo on the air where it
>> appeared they made a call, worked their way through a menu, then told the
>> person who answered they were being recorded for broadcast and asked if
>> that was ok. It was my understanding that you had to have permission
>> BEFORE recording a conversation for broadcast
>> (http://sujan.hallikainen.org/FCC/FccRules/2006/73/1206/) and that 
>> getting
>> permission during the recording was not adequate. Was this a violation?
>> Since NPR is not a licensee, do they face any liability? Do, instead, the
>> stations that broadcast the story face liability since NPR probably acted
>> on their behalf?
>>
>> Harold
>>
>> -- 
>> FCC Rules Updated Daily at http://www.hallikainen.com
>>
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> 
> 
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