FCC fines CBS affiliate for failing to maintain public record of letters (12/17/95)

FCC fines CBS affiliate for failing to maintain public record of letters

by Roman Woronowycz

JERSEY CITY, N.J. - The Federal Communications Commission has slapped a CBS affiliate in Washington on the wrist for failing to keep a public inspection record of letters of complaint which it receives from viewers.

The FCC decision, dated December 5, assesses a $2,000 fine against Washington television station WUSA for willfully and repeatedly failing to keep letters sent to it regarding displeasure with the October 23, 1994, broadcast of the "60 Minutes" segment "The Ugly Face of Freedom."

The decision comes from a complaint filed against the station by the Ukrainian-American Community Network on February 20. WUSA replied to the complaint by stating that it had sent all the letters to CBS headquarters in New York, as was customary, and that it had been assured by CBS that those corresponding had been sent reply letters, an assertion later found to be false when CBS admitted that it had not responded to a single viewer's letter.

The local station did admit in its reply to the UACN complaint that it had not stuck to the letter of the law, which requires that a station keep on hand letters sent to it regarding its programming, but maintained that by sending the correspondences to the network it had maintained the "spirit of the commission's rules."

The FCC has given WUSA 30 days "to show, in writing, why a forfeiture penalty should not be imposed or should be reduced, or to pay the [fine]."

Arthur Belendiuk, counsel for the Ukrainian-American Community Network, said the ruling is a determination by the FCC that WUSA is guilty of improprieties. "This is clearly a black mark on their record, and that stays with them."

He added that although the forfeiture of $2,000 is miniscule, in his opinion, the fact that the FCC has told WUSA that it must take whatever steps are necessary to make the public inspection files complete will give the UACN a chance to determine just what happened to the many viewers' letters.

"I strongly suspect that these letters either were trashed by WUSA, or they were sent to CBS where they were trashed," said Mr. Belendiuk. "WUSA has never provided evidence that the letters were sent, and CBS has never shown that the letters were received and catalogued."

He said he will appeal the relatively low amount of the forfeiture, and that the UACN will be monitoring WUSA to make sure that in fact the station places those letters in its public inspection file that the group determined were missing back in February.

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