wfn.org | Church body's arguments influence FCC vote

["Barb Powell"<powellb@ucc.org>]

Office of Communication
United Church of Christ                       
Hans Holznagel
216-736-2214
holznagh@ucc.org

Andrew Schwartzman
202-232-4300

On the World Wide Web:                      
http://www.ucc.org

For immediate release
June 30, 1998
      
Church body's arguments influence FCC vote
                                 
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Arguments filed by a United Church
of Christ body heavily influenced a recent Federal
Communications Commission decision to keep rules that
require broadcasters to air responses to personal attacks and
political editorials.

In a controversy dating back to the 1980s, the FCC rejected a
request by broadcast-industry groups to repeal its personal
attack and political editorial rules.  

"We believe that these two rules continue to serve as important
components of a broadcaster's public interest obligations . . .
helping to ensure that the same audience that heard the
broadcast of an endorsement or personal attack be accessible to
the individual concerned," wrote FCC Commissioners Susan
Ness and Gloria Tristani in a June 22 joint statement explaining
their vote to maintain the two rules.

They repeatedly cited arguments advanced since 1983 by the
Office of Communication Inc., and other public-interest groups
that the rules foster robust and fair debate on important issues.
The two commissioners also cited a landmark 1969 Supreme
Court case (Red Lion Broadcasting v. FCC), in which the UCC
body played a key role, as an enduring standard by which to
judge "broadcast programming regulation under the First
Amendment" despite the FCC's 1987 repeal of the Fairness
Doctrine.

"More citizens still want to broadcast over the public airwaves
than can be accommodated," Ness and Tristani wrote.  ". . . We
think it is a reasonable quid pro quo to expect those who have
been awarded these scarce frequencies to provide access to
individuals who have been personally attacked or a political
candidate whose opponent has been endorsed by a station
editorial."

For complicated procedural reasons, Ness and Tristani operated
as a "majority" in the FCC's June 18 vote, even though the two
other voting commissioners opposed them.  (Chairman William
Kennard abstained because he formerly worked for the
National Association of Broadcasters.)

"Commissioners Ness and Tristani have firmly upheld the
FCC's primary task, which is to protect the public interest, as
required by the Communications Act of 1934.  This is a victory
for free speech and for access to the airwaves by the public,
which owns them," stated Arthur Lawrence Cribbs, Jr.,
executive director of the Office of Communication.

But the fight isn't over.  Broadcasters are expected to appeal the
recent ruling.  The next step on the personal attack and political
editorial rules will be a ruling by a U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, which will review the statements of commissioners on
both sides of the case.  

The political editorial rules require time for reply by candidates
who are rejected by a broadcast station or are opponents of a
candidate who has been endorsed by the station.  The personal
attack rule requires stations to inform people who are attacked
on the air and give them reasonable time to reply.

The 1.4-million-member United Church of Christ, with national
offices in Cleveland, has more than 6,000 congregations in the
U.S. and Puerto Rico.  It was formed by the 1957 union of
the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and
Reformed Church.  Its Office of Communication carries out
projects to protect the public interest and advance affirmative
action in telecommunications, provides educational programs
in communications and handles public relations for the
denomination.
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