Turner Broadcasting:"Stunt Gone Wrong"

[Sid Schweiger]

>>if there's a rule against broadcast hoaxes, 
why wasn't any action taken against the clowns who broadcast April 
Fools Day news a few years ago about Mayor Menino having a heart 
attack or some such thing?<,

Because that incident does NOT fit the definition of a broadcast "hoax."
 The applicable rule is here:

TITLE 47--TELECOMMUNICATION
 
        CHAPTER I--FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION (CONTINUED)
 
PART 73_RADIO BROADCAST SERVICES--Table of Contents
 
          Subpart H_Rules Applicable to All Broadcast Stations
 
Sec.  73.1217  Broadcast hoaxes.

    No licensee or permittee of any broadcast station shall broadcast 
false information concerning a crime or a catastrophe if:
    (a) The licensee knows this information is false;
    (b) It is forseeable that broadcast of the information will cause 
substantial public harm, and
    (c) Broadcast of the information does in fact directly cause 
substantial public harm.

Any programming accompanied by a disclaimer will be presumed not to pose

foreseeable harm if the disclaimer clearly characterizes the program as 
a fiction and is presented in a way that is reasonable under the 
circumstances.

    Note: For purposes of this rule, "public harm'' must begin 
immediately, and cause direct and actual damage to property or to the 
health or safety of the general public, or diversion of law enforcement 
or other public health and safety authorities from their duties. The 
public harm will be deemed foreseeable if the licensee could expect with

a significant degree of certainty that public harm would occur. A 
"crime'' is any act or omission that makes the offender subject to 
criminal punishment by law. A "catastrophe'' is a disaster or imminent 
disaster involving violent or sudden event affecting the public.

[57 FR 28640, June 26, 1992]

===============================

Now that I've read it again, maybe it doesn't apply, since it was
broadcast only in news coverage while the devices were being rounded up,
and was not broadcast by The Comedy Channel.



Sid Schweiger
IT Manager, Entercom New England
WAAF - WEEI AM/FM - WKAF - WMKK - WRKO - WVEI AM/FM
20 Guest St / 3d Floor
Boston MA  02135-2040
Phone: 617-779-5369
Fax: 617-779-5379
E-Mail: sid@wrko.com