FCC inspectors apparently sought full copies of TV station public files at...
FCC inspectors apparently sought full copies of TV station public files at the same time a rulemaking proceeding was under way(CD March 28 p5) that may require all of them to post online some or all of the information, a…
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broadcast attorney said. The stations have been asked to produce full copies of the files within a short time frame, said Scott Flick of Pillsbury Winthrop. “At many stations the initial request was for 24 hours” to produce the copies, but FCC officials seem to have settled on 48 hours after getting some push back from stations, he said. It’s doubtful the commission is interested in the substance of the files, and is probably looking to gauge the cost and time it would take to make copies, Flick said. The requests may indicate the commission may be trying to prove the point that scanning and uploading documents in the public file would not be as onerous a task as broadcasters have suggested, Flick wrote on his law firm’s blog last week (http://xrl.us/bmzw89). Or, it could be that the commission may be trying to call station’s bluff about the actual size of the files, he said. A Media Bureau spokeswoman had no comment. If FCC officials are seeking copies of stations’ files, they may want to see for themselves whether stations are mistakenly inflating their size, by including older material they are not required to maintain, said Senior Policy Counsel Corie Wright of Free Press, which has said broadcasters overstate the size. “I think it’s a really good thing if the people who are making decisions at the FCC see what these files look like,” she said. “We've done it ourselves, but I think there is some value to having the FCC staff go in there and say, ‘Oh, this is what a public file looks like.'”