No FCC action expected in Imus affair

NO FCC ACTION EXPECTED IN IMUS AFFAIR
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Rachelle Younglai]
The Federal Communications Commission is not expected to take action over racist comments uttered by now-fired radio host Don Imus because of free-speech concerns. Although the FCC has received complaints, it is barred from trying to prevent the broadcast of any point of view. The Communications Act prohibits the agency from censoring broadcast material, in most cases, and from making any regulation that would interfere with freedom of speech. The complaints "will go into the normal review process," FCC spokesman David Fiske said. David Solomon, former FCC Enforcement Bureau chief and now a lawyer with Wilkinson, Barker & Knauer, said, "There are cases involving African-Americans, Jews, Muslims, that make clear that the FCC views the First Amendment as protecting racist speech. First of all there is no rule, and given their precedent, they have made it quite clear that it is protected by the First Amendment. They would have to overturn decades of precedent relating to the First Amendment," he said. Jack Goodman, the former general counsel of the National Association of Broadcasters, said, "The truth is, in the current understanding of the rules, it is not in violation of any FCC rule." The FCC bars radio and television broadcast stations from airing obscene material. Under the rules, broadcast stations can air profanity and sexually explicit content only during late-night hours when children are less likely to be watching or listening.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=industryNews&storyID...

FUROR OVER IMUS PUTS HEAT ON OTHER BROADCASTERS
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Daniel Trotta]
Corporate decisions to cancel Don Imus' U.S. radio and cable television shows have some commentators wondering what may happen to other media personalities who have also pushed the bounds of civility. Don Imus was not alone in offending minorities. Nationally syndicated U.S. radio host Neal Boortz last year said a black congresswoman who has since failed in a bid for re-election, Cynthia McKinney, "looks like a ghetto slut." Rush Limbaugh, another national radio broadcaster, in January called Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, whose father was from Kenya and white mother from Kansas, a "halfrican American." And CNN talk-show host Glenn Beck, during an interview with Muslim congressman Keith Ellison, said in November, "Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies." Boortz, Limbaugh and Beck remain in their jobs, and Boortz was among a group of conservative radio hosts who met U.S. President George W. Bush in the White House for 90 minutes last September. Some media experts suggested their offenses were not as egregious as Imus' because they targeted public officials rather than collegiate athletes. But Karl Frisch, a spokesman for Media Matters, said politicians did not deserve "racist, homophobic, sexist ridicule."
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=televisionNews&story...
* With Imus ousted, will other shows clean up their acts?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0416/p01s02-ussc.html