On U.S. Radio, Pranking Palin Would Mean FCC Fine
Over the weekend, David Oxenford at the Broadcast Law Blog pondered what would happen if radio hosts in the United States prank called vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin (or any public official or private citizen for that matter) and aired the interview without permission. His commentary comes on the heels of news that a pair of Canadian shock jocks tricked the Alaska governor into engaging in an on-air conversation under the premise that she was talking to French President Nicholas Sarkozy. Had such a stunt been executed here, it would have led to an FCC fine, he wrote.
"Under U.S. law, you cannot air a telephone conversation on a broadcast station without first getting the permission of the person at the other end of the line -- even if the person just says 'hello' before being informed that they are on the air, and even if they are a public official," he said. The FCC rules were made clear in a recent FCC ruling that fined a station $4,000 for failing to inform two airport employees that they were on the air when the station called to ask about certain policies concerning taxis at the airport. The station argued that the interviewees were public officials and the conversation was newsworthy, but the FCC rejected that argument.
Listen to the conversation between the Quebec comedy duo "The Masked Avengers" and an unsuspecting Palin here and read a transcript here. Palin's campaign issued the following response: "Governor Palin was mildly amused to learn that she had joined the ranks of heads of state, including President Sarkozy and other celebrities, in being targeted by these pranksters. C'est la vie."
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