Pappas Telecasting is complying with the FCC’s equal- time ruling...
Pappas Telecasting is complying with the FCC’s equal- time ruling but hasn’t ruled out appealing the decision to the full Commission, a company spokesman said Mon. The FCC ordered Pappas late Fri. not to provide free air time for…
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Republicans or else provide equal time to Democrats. The order followed a complaint filed last week by a Cal. Democrat saying Pappas violated federal equal-time rules by offering more free air time to GOP candidates (CD Nov 1 p9). “When a candidate is furnished time at no cost, competing candidates are entitled to receive the same amount of free time in comparable time periods,” the FCC said. The FCC disagreed with Pappas’ argument that airtime was a in-kind political contribution that didn’t require the company to offer free time to rivals under Cal. campaign law. Pappas also said the company was exercising free-speech rights and the right to make contributions. The FCC emphasized that its ruling was limited to the specific circumstances of the complainant’s request for equal opportunities. The ruling came as no surprise to Media Access Project Pres. Andrew Schwartzman, who called Pappas’ action “absurd.” Schwartzman said the Pappas incident was reflective of broadcasters’ election actions. “This is an accumulative affect of broadcasters thinking the FCC no longer cares what they do. I'm glad to say they're wrong,” he said. Last week, a complaint was dropped against Sinclair Bcst. for airing an anti- Kerry documentary after Sinclair modified the program to include opposing views (CD Nov 1 p9).