Broadcasting & Cable, May 6, 2008
By John Eggerton

A pair of powerful legislators want to know whether news networks bear any culpability related to a Department of Defense program to recruit ex-military officers to talk up Iraq and other policies on TV, online and elsewhere.

Following a story in the New York Times about the program, House Telecommunications & Internet Subcommittee Chairman John dingell (D-Mich.) and Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) have asked FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to investigate whether the program may have violated requirements of sponsorship identification.

“While we deem the DoD’s policy unethical and perhaps illegal, we also question whether the analysts and the networks are potentially equally culpable pursuant to the sponsorship identification requirements in the Communications Act of 1934 and the rules of the Federal Communications Commission,” the pair wrote Martin.

To read the article and the full text of the letter, click here.

This article is copyrighted material, the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.