Ethics Newsline®

WASHINGTON
U.S. broadcasters must keep death threats — whether serious or made in jest — off the air, or face possible revocation of their licenses, Federal Communications Commission regulator Gloria Tristani warned last week.

Tristani’s admonishment follows two recent on-air death threats, one made in jest by a CBS television show against presidential candidate George W. Bush, the other made against vice-presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman on radio shock-jock Howard Stern’s program.

Following the CBS parody, which featured a picture of Bush captioned with “Snipers Wanted,” Tristani said her office had been barraged with complaints from viewers outraged by what she called the “irresponsible” broadcast.

In the wake of the parody gone awry, which appeared on “The Late Late Show with Greg Kilborn,” CBS issued repeated apologies for airing the “inappropriate and regrettable” graphic, the Reuters news agency reported.

Such apologies may not be sufficient, Tristani warned, saying that broadcasters are obligated to steer far clear of any messages that implicitly endorse violence “against those with different opinions.”

Viewers believe “violence suggested on television too easily and too often becomes violence accepted,” Tristani told APBnews.com.

“Calls for voluntary codes of conduct are changing to calls for enforceable regulatory standards,” Tristani wrote in a letter to CBS following the incident.

But some free-speech advocates say the Commission is overzealous. Paul McMasters, First Amendment ombudsman for the Freedom Forum, told APBNews.com that, “to presume that either CBS or the Howard Stern show, or any of these others, are soliciting violence against an elected official or encouraging violence in general is an awfully big stretch.”