The FCC Media Bureau sent letters to 11 stations...
The FCC Media Bureau sent letters to 11 stations Monday requiring they respond to complaints against them alleging political file violations. The Campaign Legal Center and Sunlight Foundation filed the complaints against stations owned by Gannett, Scripps and others (CD…
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May 2 p6). “We take political file complaints seriously and anticipate resolving these quickly,” said Chairman Tom Wheeler in a news release Monday (http://bit.ly/1mOK8yz). “I hope this serves as a reminder to all stations of their obligation to maintain political files in accordance with statutory provisions and our Rules.” The bureau concluded that further information is necessary to resolve this matter, it wrote the 11 stations. The licensee “must indicate whether the referenced documents comply in all other respects with the Commission’s statutes and rules and, if not, explain why” by May 27,it said. Stations might consider “developing internal systems to minimize omissions of required data from political advertising documentation,” said Fletcher Heald attorney Howard Weiss in a blog post (http://bit.ly/1iGyEVz). The possibility of such complaints should provide a strong incentive for all TV stations “to take steps to tighten up that end of their operation to the extent possible,” he said.