Re: Menino and WAAF

["'A. Joseph Ross'" <lawyer@world.std.com>]

On Sat, 4 Apr 1998, Donna Halper wrote:

> I said that to Dean Johnson, who may indeed quote me in an up-coming Herald.
> A show can be outrageous without being vile... Too bad the FCC doesn't
> enforce much of anything anymore.  I don't think what these two mental
> midgets did is considered "protected speech".  They will of course say they
> meant no harm, but every jock I ever trained, I always encouraged them to
> THINK of the CONSEQUENCES before pulling any April Fool's prank-- some stuff
> that sounds funny in a meeting can cause serious damage when it is put on
> the air...   

One of the major features of an April Fool prank is that, fairly quickly, 
you are supposed to say APRIL FOOL!  It sounds as though these two
juveniles just kept on treating it as a serious news story, even after
having been asked by Mayor Menino's office to stop.

I heard on TV today that Mayor Menino had made a complaint to the FCC.

This, in turn, reminds me of a prank I played once back at WMUA.  While a
record was playing, and no mike was live, I came running in to the control
room, a piece of teletype paper in hand, and declared to the person on
duty that President Johnson had been assassinated.  This was less than a
year after Kennedy's assassination.  He grabbed for the teleype paper, as
I burst out laughing, and he quickly knew that I had been joking. Carrying
a joke like that too far is where you can get into trouble.

===========================================================================
 A. Joseph Ross, J.D.                                         617.367.0468
 15 Court Square                                      lawyer@world.std.com
 Boston, MA 02108-2503                       http://world.std.com/~lawyer/
===========================================================================

------------------------------