FCC says no authority to act on Imus comments

FCC SAYS NO AUTHORITY TO ACT ON IMUS COMMENTS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Karey Wutkowski]
The Federal Communications Commission does not have the authority to fine or take other action about fired radio host Don Imus' racist comments, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told Congress on Tuesday. He said Congress gave the FCC authority to issue fines only for the broadcast of indecent content, which is limited to sexual and excretory language, or for inappropriate children's programming. "Imus' comments were obviously very offensive, more offensive than some of the indecent remarks we've fined people for in the past," Chairman Martin said during a budget hearing before the House Appropriations Subcommittee. "The commission doesn't fine based on whether or not something is offensive language." Although the Commission has received a number of complaints about Imus, the appropriate recourse for angry listeners is to complain when a broadcast station's license is up for renewal.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=industryNews&storyID...
* FCC Chief Said Don Imus Did Not Break the Law
http://www.publicintegrity.org/telecom/telecomwatch.aspx?eid=2827&entry=...
* FCC Can't Fine CBS Radio Stations for Imus's Comments
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601204&sid=a0R5VGhhyC_I

IMUS SECOND BIGGEST STORY OF 2007 SO FAR
[SOURCE: Project for Excellence in Journalism, AUTHOR: Tom Rosenstiel, Paul Hitlin, and Hong Ji ]
The downfall of talk show host Don Imus for racist and misogynistic comments was the second most-heavily covered story of the year to date, according to the PEJ’s weekly study of the agenda of the American news media. From his attempted redemption on the Rev. Al Sharpton’s radio show to the fallout over his firing by NBC and CBS, the controversy over Imus’s insults about the Rutgers’s women’s basketball team filled more than a quarter of the newshole (26%) of PEJ’s News Coverage Index for the week of April 8 to 13. Only the debate over American war policy with Iraq when the President announced his “surge” plan the week of January 7 to 12 got more media coverage this year. It filled 34% of the newshole in our index that week. Nothing else this year has come close to capturing the media’s attention at this level. The next biggest story of the year, the controversy over the firing of U.S. Attorneys, filled 18% of the newshole the week of March 18 to 23. The takeover by Democrats of Congress reached 15% the first week of the year. Several stories, including the presidential campaign and the State of the Union speech, have gone as high as 13% in a given week. The Anna Nicole Smith story has never exceeded 10% of the total newshole.
http://journalism.org/node/5085

IS RUSH LIMBAUGH NEXT?
[SOURCE: Salon, AUTHOR: Alex Koppelman]
First they came for Don Imus. And now they'll come for Rush. At least, that was the fear at the Free Congress Foundation on April 13, where a panel discussion of an ancient broadcasting regulation quickly turned into a discussion of Don Imus and how his firing might portend a similar fate for some of the right's best-known media personalities. In the absence of any compelling evidence, participants in the latest of the conservative think tank's occasional Next Conservatism Forum series managed to convince themselves that the Fairness Doctrine, a rule that was scrapped by the Federal Communications Commission 20 years ago, was poised for a comeback, and was about to become a weapon in a liberal jihad against the right wing's freedom of speech. In fact, the prominent conservatives, addressing a crowd of 30 on the ground floor of a Washington row house, described what sounded like a conspiracy. Panelist Ken Blackwell, formerly Ohio's secretary of state and the Republican candidate for governor last fall, said Imus was "not a conservative" and that "the left has sacrificed one of their own to give them a platform to go after true conservative talk show hosts." Cliff Kincaid, of the conservative media watchdog Accuracy in Media, said the Imus firing had been a revelation. "It wasn't exactly clear to me how [liberals] intended to bring back the Fairness Doctrine, but I think now with the Imus affair, we know ... [And it's a] short leap from firing Imus to going after Rush Limbaugh."
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/04/16/fairness_doctrine/index_np....