The Five-Year Enforcement Shot Clock: Has the FCC Finally Begun to Acknowledge It?

The Federal Communications Commission may have taken the first steps – baby steps carefully cloaked from public view, perhaps, but steps nonetheless – toward addressing its hopeless backlog of broadcast complaints. In a series of super-low-key actions in recent weeks, the FCC’s Media Bureau has quietly cancelled a number of previously assessed forfeitures. The actions have been reflected in terse letters that provide no explanation for the cancellations. But based on the answers we got to some informal inquiries, we figure that these cancellations could be the harbinger of considerably more dramatic developments on the complaints front.