IN BRIEF
By Staff -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/21/2002
Ounce of prevention
The United Church of Christ has petitioned the FCC for rules establishing "minimum corporate-responsibility standards" for all telecommunications licensees. The church argues that the FCC's current method for evaluating character relies on criminal convictions, adjudicated antitrust violations and other "classes of misconduct that require an applicant be caught, tried and convicted before the FCC can protect the public interest," by which time, it says, the harm has already been done.
Infinity's quiet ride
Infinity Broadcasting has asked the FCC to keep confidential its reply to an agency inquiry into WNEW(FM) New York's infamous Opie and Anthony broadcast, in which the shock jocks aired coverage of a couple allegedly attempting to have sex in St. Patrick's Cathedral as part of a contest. Infinity declined a BROADCASTING & CABLE request for a copy of the reply. The FCC has yet to rule on the request.
The FCC in August ordered the station to answer several questions, including the identity of other outlets that aired the Opie and Anthony broadcast and whether similar broadcasts were aired previously.
'First' things first
Noted media attorney Floyd Abrams, CNN anchor Judy Woodruff and Susan Zirinsky, longtime executive producer of CBS's 48 Hours, will be honored in March by the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation at its 13th annual First Amendment Awards Dinner in Washington.
