BALTIMORE, Dec. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sinclair Broadcast Group,
Inc. (Nasdaq: SBGI) announced today that it had recently filed an
opposition with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to the Notice
of Apparent Liability (NAL) issued by the FCC on October 18, 2007. In the
NAL, the FCC accused a number of Sinclair stations of failing to comply
with disclosure rules regarding political announcements as a result of the
broadcast by these stations of an episode of the nationally syndicated,
public affairs program "America's Black Forum."
As detailed in the filing made by Sinclair with the FCC, "America's
Black Forum" is an Emmy-award winning program which addresses current
events and differs from programs such as "Face the Nation" and "Meet the
Press" only in that "America's Black Forum" is targeted to an African
American audience. Although the FCC's issuance of the NAL appears to have
been motivated by the appearance of Armstrong Williams in the program at
the same time as he was apparently being paid by the Department of
Education to promote the "No Child Left Behind Act," the FCC mistakenly
assumed that Mr. Williams was the producer or owner of the program. In
fact, however, Mr. Williams was simply a paid political commentator on a
program that was produced by Uniworld Group, Inc., an unrelated company
owned by the African American entrepreneur Byron Lewis, Sr.
Although a number of press accounts regarding the NAL have erroneously
claimed that Sinclair was fined for violating what are commonly referred to
as the FCC's "payola/plugola" rules, the NAL actually alleges that Sinclair
violated rules requiring sponsorship identification of political broadcast
matter. These rules, however, are wholly inapplicable to a syndicated
program such as "America's Black Forum" in that the rules only apply to
political matter which a broadcaster is "induced" to air. In other words,
the political disclosure rules only apply if a broadcaster receives
something of value (which can be a payment or the receipt of the program
for free) in exchange for airing the material. In the case of "America's
Black Forum," however, the Sinclair stations, as is customary with
syndicated programming, actually provided consideration to the producers of
the program in order to obtain the right to broadcast the program in
certain markets.
"Broadcasters should be very concerned about the Notice of Apparent
Liability issued against Sinclair in this matter," stated Barry Faber,
Sinclair's Vice President and General Counsel, "because of the dangerous
precedent which it would set. To our knowledge the FCC's political
disclosure rules have never before been used to fine a television station
for airing a public affairs program simply because a paid guest on the
program may have received payment from a third party with an interest in
what that commentator had to say." Mr. Faber noted further that, "It is
simply unworkable and unreasonable to expect broadcasters to interrogate
every guest who appears on a public affairs show produced by a third party
in an attempt to determine whether the views expressed were in any way
influenced by consideration received by the guest. We are hopeful that once
the FCC understands the impossibility of avoiding the situation complained
of in the NAL, the lack of knowledge by Sinclair about the underlying facts
which prompted the NAL and the erroneous factual assumptions which
apparently underlay the issuance of the NAL, that it will be rescinded."
"Sinclair is proud to have aired such high caliber, award-winning
programming as "America's Black Forum," said David Smith, Sinclair's
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "The show not only discussed issues
of great importance to the American public in general, but did so in a
manner expressly intended to target the underserved African American
audience. It is a shame that the FCC chose to issue a Notice of Apparent
Liability against our stations solely as the result of facts involving a
guest on the show when such facts were not known to either the producers of
the program or to Sinclair. This action by the FCC, which may create a
chilling effect on broadcasters' willingness to broadcast programs like
"America's Black Forum," is particularly ironic given its issuance at a
time when the FCC has expressed concerns about the efforts of broadcasters
to meet their public service obligations"
A copy of the filing at the FCC made by Sinclair can be located on
Sinclair's web site (http://www.SBGI.net) under "News Releases."
Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc., one of the largest and most diversified
television broadcasting companies, currently owns and operates, programs or
provides sales services to 57 television stations in 35 markets. Sinclair's
television group reaches approximately 22% of the U.S. television
households and is affiliated with all the major networks.
Forward-Looking Statements:
The matters discussed in this press release include forward-looking
statements regarding. When used in this press release, the words "outlook,"
"intends to," "believes," "anticipates," "expects," "achieves," and similar
expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such
statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual
results in the future could differ materially and adversely from those
described in the forward-looking statements as a result of various
important factors, including and in addition to the assumptions identified
herein this release and the other risk factors set forth in the Company's
most recent reports on Form 10-Q and Form 10-K, as filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. There can be no assurances that the
assumptions and other factors referred to in this release will occur. The
Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the result of any
revisions to these forward-looking statements.
SOURCE Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.sbgi.net
http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/110203.html/
CONTACT:
Barry Faber, VP & General Counsel of
Sinclair, +1-410-568-1500
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