After Complaints, WHNT-TV Must Respond to FCC

According to msnbc.msn.com, on February 25, WHNT-TV received numerous complaints following a blackout of a story about the former governor of Alabama, Don Siegalman. Controversy over the story includes a suggestion in the story that Siegelman's prosecution and imprisonment had to do with Republican politics.

While attorneys for Siegelman have asked for a special prosecutor to look into these allegations, State Democratic Party Chairman Joe Turnham has asked the Federal Communications Commission to make a formal inquiry concerning political pressure was behind the blackout. WHNT general manager Stan Pylant claims technical problems with a receiver and the story was aired at another time.

Did this station violate any FCC rule in respect to political material or other rules?

The Communications Act of 1934 has several sections that address equal opportunity and access to broadcast facilities in respect to candidates running for public office.

If the former governor was a candidate for public office and the blackout were found to be intentional then this might fall under one of the following sections of the communications Act of 1934.

312 Administrative sanctions.

(a) The Commission may revoke any station license or construction permit for willful or repeated failure to allow reasonable access to or to permit purchase of reasonable amounts of time for the use of a broadcasting station, other than a non-commercial educational broadcast station, by a legally qualified candidate for Federal elective office on behalf of his candidacy. Section 399 Support of political candidates prohibited. No noncommercial educational broadcasting station may support or oppose any candidate for public office.

The former governor is not a current candidate and the station did re-air the story at another time as well as made it available via its website. In order to have broken the above or any other rule it would have to be proven the blackout was intentional and not simply a mechanical equipment failure or technical problem. It is possible the blackout could have been caused directly by the intentional actions of an individual who had access to the equipment. The station would have to address this issue and might be found at fault if management had prior knowledge of the employees intentions and failed to act accordingly to prevent the incident.

Broadcast rules are in Title 47 United States Code. Relevant sections of the Communications Act of 1934 can be found at http://www.fcc.gov/mb/policy/political/candrule.htm