“The number of reported decisions drops off dramatically after 1976, and there is only one finding of distortion after 1982, when the Reagan-era FCC began to remove content regulations on broadcast news,” Raphael wrote. The one post-1982 finding of distortion was issued in a letter of admonishment to NBC in 1993 “for staging a segment of a Dateline NBC report on unsafe gas tanks in General Motors trucks,” Raphael wrote.
GM investigated the incident and NBC “admitted to staging the explosion, made an on-air apology to GM, fired three producers who contributed to the segment, and eventually dismissed its news president,” he wrote. The FCC itself sent the letter quietly, with “the first mention of this action appearing in a 1999 decision rejecting a challenge to NBC’s license renewals.”
Investigations rare, penalties even rarer
The rare findings of news distortion were usually accompanied by other infractions. “Most penalties consisted of issuing letters of admonishment or censure that did not figure heavily in subsequent license renewals, all of which were successful,” Raphael wrote.
Despite Raphael’s paper being nearly a quarter-century old, it’s practically up to date. “Since the time of Raphael’s study, it appears that the Commission has only considered allegations of news distortion in a very small number of cases,” said a 2019 paper by Joel Timmer, a professor of film, television, and digital media at Texas Christian University.
Timmer found eight post-1999 cases in which news distortion allegations were considered. Most of the allegations didn’t get very far, and none of them resulted in a finding of news distortion.
The FCC technically has no rule or regulation against news distortion. “Instead, it has a news distortion policy, developed ‘through the adjudicatory process in decisions resolving challenges to broadcasters’ licenses,'” Timmer wrote.
The FCC dismissed an allegation of news distortion over broadcast networks incorrectly projecting that Al Gore would win Florida in the 2000 presidential election, he wrote. The FCC said the incorrect projections were “not a sufficient basis to initiate such an investigation.”