The Daily Stern: FCC assignment desk
: I put in a Freedom of Information request to the FCC asking to get the whopping 159 complaints that led them to decree that Fox had corrupted America by suggesting sex on its Married by America. I have heard no reply.
I’m serious, FCC. I’m a reporter, too. I want to see those “complaints.” I expect I’ll find more work by Xerox than by the citizenry.
On Stern this morning, he raised another good story: Michael Powell said during Stern’s phone call with him that the FCC had investigated and found Viacom to be in some conspiracy with Janet Jackson to expose her breast. But Janet Jackson said she did this on her own. So why is Viacom being fined and not Jackson? If there is no proof of this conspiracy, then the FCC’s fine is clearly a punitive political action, not the result of regulatory investigation.
So a good reporter should file an FOI request for the investigation files on the Janet Jackson case.
And while you’re at it, file an FOI request for the complaints against Stern and Jackson. Here I know you will find that they come from only a few sources with a lot of Xeroxing. It’s not the people standing up as one — hell, it’s a tiny proportion of people in any case — but instead an organized pressure group.
Is it government’s job to respond to every pressure group with a Xerox machine? If so, the libertarians should be about ready to dismantle government by now. And Area 51 should be opened. And we’d be out of the UN….
These are good stories. Any real reporters out there?
