The National Religious Broadcasters association asked the FCC to adopt rule...

Networks, a low-power broadcasting services company. REC claimed that allowing this change would open doors for organizations to raise funds that directly benefit their parent organizations (http://xrl.us/bnmoxf). REC fails to demonstrate “how that would be harmful to the public interest, or would defeat the purposes behind the noncommercial educational classification,” NRB said (http://xrl.us/bnmoxm). NRB supports requiring clear disclosures to be made by the station indicating the identity of the organization for which the on-air fundraising efforts are being made, it said. “This could also include identifying whether the organization is a ‘parent organization’ of the station.” Through the change, “the listening or viewing audience would be reminded that the NCE station is about the business of public interest, as evidenced by the non-profit status of the groups for which it raises funds,” NRB said in response to NEPR’s comments (http://xrl.us/bnmox8). NEPR also argued that the proposed regulation “could weaken the public’s confidence in the editorial independence and balanced reporting of noncommercial stations and that if the public were to question whether news or interviews favor an entity for which the station is fundraising, then trust is broken,” NRB said. This concern is unfounded, “given the fact that current commission rules permit an NCE station to accept short sponsorship and underwriting mentions on the air, not only from non-profit groups, but from commercial businesses as well,” NRB added.