Hat tip to The Phoenix New Times….
On August 17, KPNX-TV, a television station in Phoenix, Arizona ran a story about the vandalism of a memorial to Confederate War Dead on the grounds of the Arizona State Capitol. According to the story, the station’s videographer and reporter happened to see the vandal quickly leaving the scene as they arrived, and then they noticed that the monument had been vandalized.
KPNX-TV has pulled the original story and is now telling a somewhat different tale. Moreover, the reporter’s Facebook page has apparently gone off line. The apparent cause of these changes is the appearance of surveillance-camera footage which appears to show the vandal doing his thing in proximity to the news van, at times even illuminated by the headlights.
10 min video from Zac McDonald on Vimeo.
The station’s general manager has issued at statement saying that the news crew’s view was obstructed, but that does not appear to jive with the footage from the surveillance camera.
Maybe I am just suspicious in this Trumpian Era, but it sure looks shady to me.
The FCC has a policy about News Slanting or News Distortion, but it is pretty dusty. Serafyn v. FCC, 149 F.3d 1213 (D.C. Cir. 1998), is a case in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit looked at the doctrine in connection with a segment on the CBS television series, 60 Minutes, that dealt with the topic of Anti-Semitism in Ukraine.
According to Serafyn, for actionable news distortion to exist:
— The distortion must deliberately slant the true story, or deliberately mislead the audience, and there must be extrinsic evidence (other than the broadcast itself) that the distortion was intentional, such as the existence of written or oral instructions from station management, or the existence and content of outtakes; and
— The distorted coverage must form a significant aspect of the broadcast, and not merely be a minor or incidental aspect of the news report.
Note that, since its inception, the News Slanting or News Distortion doctrine has related to the regulation of broadcast media (over-the-air television and radio), and not to cable channels.
The News Slanting or News Distortion doctrine has been the subject of criticism by some, especially on the right, on First-Amendment grounds. It would be surprising to see the FCC invoke the News Slanting or News Distortion doctrine should anyone file a complaint.
However, the FCC also has a codified rule against the broadcast of hoaxes.
This rule prohibits broadcast licensees or permittees from broadcasting false information concerning a crime or a catastrophe if:
- the licensee knows this information is false;
- it is foreseeable that broadcast of the information will cause substantial public harm; and
- broadcast of the information does in fact directly cause substantial public harm.
[….] For purposes of this rule, "public harm'' must begin immediately, and cause direct and actual damage to property or to the health or safety of the general public, or diversion of law enforcement or other public health and safety authorities from their duties.
The public harm will be deemed foreseeable if the licensee could expect with a significant degree of certainty that public harm would occur.
A "crime'' is any act or omission that makes the offender subject to criminal punishment by law.
If this was a set-up, it would appear to fall within the four squares of the hoax rule. Or am I being too cynical?