Polite Applause for NAB, Raspberry for FCC

POLITE APPLAUSE FOR NAB, RASPBERRY FOR FCC
[SOURCE: tvnewsday, AUTHOR: Harry Jessell]
[Commentary] Jessell gives the National Association of Broadcasters "polite applause" for softening the Federal Communications Commission's digital television education mandates. But why just polite applause for the NAB effort? Because there should be no PSAs mandates at all. An earlier, more effective lobbying effort might have derailed the whole FCC initiative. Last year, the NAB spent a ton of money to hire staff and develop a comprehensive voluntary educational DTV campaign. It was impressive. It was intended to obviate FCC rules. The NAB just couldn't sell it to the FCC or to the key Hill players. It’s not entirely NAB’s fault. Each of the big station groups needed to step up with promises to air a certain number of PSAs throughout the day, including primetime. Those commitments never came. Without them, the NAB voluntary campaign began taking on a certain smoke-and-mirrors quality. Now, broadcasters are stuck with the PSA obligations plus the reporting requirements that go with it. Jessell also argues that the FCC has no business investigating WHNT, the Alabama TV station that did not air a 60 Minutes segment about the possible railroading of a now-former Alabama governor.
http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2008/03/07/daily.4/