Campaigns & Elections' Political Broadcast Manual - March 2008 - (Page 10)

IX. The Disclosure X. Censorship of Uses XI. Sponsorship Identification Solicitation of Funds Controversial Issues of Public Importance Placement of the Sponsorship Identification Broadcaster Responsibility Hidden Sponsorship Pre-Broadcast Submissions State Requirements XII. Political File Contents XIII. Access to the Political File Updates XIV. The Fairness Doctrine XV. Political Editorials Notice Response Requirements XVI. Personal Attacks Action Previously Required Three Elements Broadcaster’s Duties XVII. Issue Advertising 36 38 39 42 46 46 46 47 52 XVIII. News Distortion 52 Two practices in particular have proven troublesome. The first is the editing of interview responses, ostensibly to “tighten up” a rambling answer. An extreme example was revealed in a 1984 case involving a CBS report on automobile accidents staged for the purpose of defrauding insurance companies. There, a former participant in such a scheme was asked a simple question, to which his broadcast answer was a simple “yes.” The unedited transcripts of the interview, however, revealed the actual answer to have been equivocal but generally negative. Even so, the FCC was willing to write the incident off as a legitimate exercise of journalistic judgment. The other focal point of many distortion complaints is that of staging an event - that is, portraying an event that did not occur or reenacting an event without clear identification as such. In the “Hunger in America” investigation, CBS was criticized for having portrayed an infant dying of starvation, when in fact the depicted victim was prematurely born, not undernourished, and expiring of natural causes. In another incident, jail employees were cast as inmates in order to illustrate prison conditions in which actual prisoners could not be photographed. In that event, the FCC carved out a broad exception to its general policy in order to permit staging that is relatively minor and incidental to the program as a whole. XIX. Conclusion What to Do If You Have a Complaint 53 This Manual is provided for general information purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal advice pertaining to any specific factual situation 10 « March 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Campaigns & Elections' Political Broadcast Manual - March 2008

Campaigns & Elections' Political Broadcast Manual - March 2008 Contents Introduction – The Scope of the Political Broadcasting Rules “Legally Qualified” Candidates Reasonable Access “Uses” of Broadcast Facilities Exempt Programs Requests for Equal Opportunities Equal Opportunities Lowest Unit Charges The Disclosure Censorship of Uses Sponsorship Identification Political File Contents Access to the Political File The Fairness Doctrine Political Editorials Personal Attacks Issue Advertising News Distortion Conclusion

Campaigns & Elections' Political Broadcast Manual - March 2008

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