"The Federal Communications Commission recently fined Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. more than $13 million for failing to identify sponsored content that the broadcaster aired on its stations," Holden Wilen reports for the Baltimore Business Journal. The fine is the largest-ever penalty for that offense.
KUTV, Sinclair's station in Salt Lake City, aired paid programming about the local Huntsman Cancer Institute more than 1,700 times without disclosing that Huntsman paid for the content. Some stories resembled news coverage and some were 30-minute programs. Sinclair told the FCC that it repeatedly told stations to identify the content as paid, and said the violation was because of "miscommunications and misunderstanding, David Goldman reports for CNN.
Sinclair said in a statement that the fine was "unreasonable" and it plans to contest it. The two Democratic FCC commissioners wanted the fine to be much larger. One, Jessica Rosenworcel, wrote in her dissent against the judgment that the fine was an "unreasonable and suspicious favor" to Sinclair. The other, Mignon Clyburn, called the fine a "mere slap on the wrist" and questioned whether the amount of the fine was "another example of special treatment by the FCC majority." FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a responding statement that the Democrats' proposed $82 million penalty would be unprecedented, and insinuated that they wanted to punish Sinclair for its well-known conservative political leanings, CNN reports.
KUTV, Sinclair's station in Salt Lake City, aired paid programming about the local Huntsman Cancer Institute more than 1,700 times without disclosing that Huntsman paid for the content. Some stories resembled news coverage and some were 30-minute programs. Sinclair told the FCC that it repeatedly told stations to identify the content as paid, and said the violation was because of "miscommunications and misunderstanding, David Goldman reports for CNN.
Sinclair said in a statement that the fine was "unreasonable" and it plans to contest it. The two Democratic FCC commissioners wanted the fine to be much larger. One, Jessica Rosenworcel, wrote in her dissent against the judgment that the fine was an "unreasonable and suspicious favor" to Sinclair. The other, Mignon Clyburn, called the fine a "mere slap on the wrist" and questioned whether the amount of the fine was "another example of special treatment by the FCC majority." FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said in a responding statement that the Democrats' proposed $82 million penalty would be unprecedented, and insinuated that they wanted to punish Sinclair for its well-known conservative political leanings, CNN reports.
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