The Daily Stern
: FCC SIDES WITH CASTRO: Among all the absurd, meddling, and stupid rulings from the FCC lately, this one really takes the Twinkie: The FCC fined a station for making a phony phone call to the real Fidel Castro -- and getting him on the line -- but not following commission rules about getting permission to put the person on the air:
...the Cuban officials were not provided with notice that their conversations were to be broadcast prior to recording; and that Mr. Castro was only provided with notice of the station’s intent to record and broadcast the conversation after the conversation had commenced....
The rule reflects the Commission’s longstanding belief that prior notification is essential to protect individuals’ legitimate expectation of privacy, as well as to preserve their dignity by avoidance of nonconsensual broadcasts of their conversations....
...we find nothing in the rule that excuses the prohibited conduct on the basis of the recipients’ residence or their political status. The rule is designed to promote disclosure by licensees before a conversation is recorded and/or broadcast and to curb behavior that would result in a recipient of a call being embarrassed or surprised by a licensee.
Yeah, we wouldn't want to embarrass or surprise a frigging murderous dictator.
Somebody stop these effing fools! [Discovered by George Mannes via Choire Sicha]
: INDECENT BUSINESS: The Wall Street Journal online puts together quite the graphic package on the FCC and indecency, including a chart showing the rocket-rise of fines lately and the naughty bits from various of the fined broadcasters.
Anywhere, anytime
: Frank Barnako, columnist and radio exec for CBS Marketwatch, is a fan and follower of blogs (as I learned over breakfast with him) and he writes about the blogging Lost Remote and I did of our industry conferences this week:
Coverage by Jarvis, Bergman and Safran was straight journalism, with none of the snarky comments so common in blogs. It appears all three were motivated by nothing more than the desire to prove they could do what they set out to do using a cell phone and a network connection. No financial backing, no overhead, and no wires.
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