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Action Alert: 911 Stories

CBA Board Members meet with Senator Dianne Feinstein

The CBA met with U.S. Senator Dianne Fein-stein in her San Francisco office last month. Seven members of our Board of Directors joined President/CEO Stan Statham in dis-cussing important broadcast issues with the Senator and her chief consultant who called in from Washington D.C.

The Senator lived up to her reputation as informed and engaged. She pulled out her notebook, took detailed notes, asked many questions and responded positively to our requests.

The first topic was spectrum auctions. Board members made a convincing case that even though the authorizing legislation offers them some protections in the auction process, the Senator must stand by ready to assist us if the FCC begins to ignore those broadcast safeguards.

Next up was retransmission consent. The Senator was pleasantly surprised when board members ar-gued the present system was working fine and no changes were necessary. She remarked that it was rare when an industry position was as simple as “keep things the way they are.”

Third was FM chips. As board members were detailing how activating the chips in cellphones could save lives in disasters, the television in the Senator’s office interrupted programming with a special report about the swarm of earthquakes occurring at that moment in Southern California. That coinci-dence helped reinforce our point and illustrate the vital community service radio and television broad-casters offer their audience.

Other topics discussed included the Performance Rights Act and the Fairness Doctrine.

We look forward to meeting again with her in DC (along with Senator Barbara Boxer) during the NAB Leadership Conference next March. If you would like to attend that conference, please let us know.

Bill To Increase Political Disclosure Fails

911 - Send Us Your Stories!

Much like a bumper sticker or website banner ad, there is only so much room in a broadcast political spot before mandated government disclosures overwhelm the election message. Yet every legislative session there are bills attempting to dictate more advertising content.

This year the bill was AB 1648. The measure was one vote short of passing in the last weeks of the legislative session, so it was amend-ed to be a ballot proposition for 2014. That effort failed as well.

Among other things, this bill would have required TV and radio ads for ballot propositions to include a web address for the sponsor and name a third major donor with their economic interest. A new require-ment for TV would take 3 seconds of every ad to spotlight the corporate logos of the top 3 donors. This bill would also have demanded ads of 15 seconds or less contain the same disclosures as longer spots.

As noted in the committee analysis of the bill, the length of disclosures in broadcast ads may have al-ready reached the constitutional breaking point by burdening political speech. Additional disclosures would certainly invite a courtroom showdown by your CBA and others.

AB 1275, a bill to ban the release of taped 911 calls, was debated in the Legislature this summer. Although CBA helped stop the bill before it reached the Governor’s desk, we expect to see a similar bill next year.

This attempt at a blanket prohibition against releasing 911 record-ings was overbroad and ignored court decisions that require a bal-ancing of interests, including the public’s right to require government transparency and accountability. There was no exemption in the measure for news, investigative journalism, academic research or access to a 911 recording by any person besides law enforcement agents, designated attorneys or the caller.

One of the benefits of open public records is the ability for ANYONE to monitor and audit important government, education and budgetary functions. Are the services being accomplished effectively on a timely basis? How can government agencies learn from each other’s mistakes and oversights? Does the performance of the service justify more or less scarce tax dollars? These questions take on enor-mous significance when a public service deals with matters of life and death.

Our elected officials often do not realize that recordings of 911 calls have a long history of multiple uses and that news organizations only make the decision to use these tapes after carefully considering ques-tions of taste, privacy, sensitivity, newsworthiness and how the information increases the accuracy of the story. Please send us examples of how you use 911 recordings to raise awareness of community issues we can share with your state legislators.

Chairman’s Note

FPPC Levels The Playing Field

Next year radio stations across California will go through the process of renewing their license to broad-cast. This is an opportunity to reestablish the importance of serving the public in all aspects of our busi-ness. Public service is the responsibility of everyone at the station, whether you are in management, sales, production, news or answer the phones and greet the public.

As Chairman of the CBA, I get to see first-hand the various approaches of the 1000 plus stations oper-ating in California. Stations large and small from the far north end of the state to the border with Mexico understand that the reason they are on the air is to serve the public. Some see this as a “public service calling” and others simply consider it a good business strategy.

From low power radio and TV providing niche language programming, to the network O&O’s delivering “must see TV”, there are as many versions of “public interest” as channels. Regardless of the path sta-tions take, broadcasting thrives or dies on the ability to give listeners and viewers something they find valuable.

We each approach public service differently and that’s fine. What we need to do is improve the way we tell our story. All too often broadcasters do a great job of reporting on other industries while neglecting the impressive narratives of our own. As you prepare your license renewal for the FCC, please share your community service stories with your CBA as well.

Governor Jerry Brown signed a bill late last month (AB 481) sponsored by the Fair Political Practices Commission to tighten disclosure rules. The bill targets political campaigns that support or oppose ballot measures or candidates and are independent (not coordinated by) the official ballot or candidate committees.

Current law requires broadcast advertising to disclose the committee who paid for the spot and its top two donors of $50,000 or more. AB 481 extends this disclosure requirement to advertising mediums that were previously exempt such as newspapers, billboards or other print ads.

The use of independent expenditure committees was relatively rare before the existing advertising disclosure regulations were put into effect by Proposition 34 on the November 2000 ballot. Since that time, the amount of campaign spending through independent expenditures has increased by more than 6,000% in legislative races and over 5,500% in state-wide elections.

Your CBA works hard to ensure that broadcasters do not suffer from a greater disclosure burden than other media. Political consultants should be free to choose the medium that meets their campaign needs, not forced to choose one over another because of regulatory mandates.

John Paley - CBA Chairman / VP Lotus Communications

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On the inside.... ************************************ >> 911 Calls >> FPPC action >> Political Ad Disclosure >> Senator Feinstein

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President/CEO: Stan Statham

Each year your CBA assists the U. S. State Department and the California International Visitor Leadership Program in hosting journalists from around the world. Last month’s visitor was Tim Ayliffe from Australia. The program is designed to share and compare the working knowledge of media professionals worldwide and discuss the future of the industry.

One important objective is for visitors to learn how our federal and state governments develop me-dia laws and regulations. CBA President/CEO Stan Statham escorted Ayliffe through the Capitol building for a close look at the ins and outs of California policymaking.

The afternoon was spent at a Sacramento television station (KOVR-TV/ KMAX-TV) observing news meetings, learning about public service initiatives, and exploring the technological features of our broadcast systems.

(Left to right) Kevin Walsh, Vice President & General Manager, KOVR-TV/KMAX-TV, Sacramento; Cameryn Beck, News Director, CBS 13-CW 31; and Tim Ayliffe, Executive Producer, Australian Broadcasting Corpora-tion, Melbourne

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