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Post by kenglish on Sept 20, 2011 8:24:47 GMT -6
KSL-TV got a citation yesterday from the FCC, over Closed Captioning issues.
On August 13, with the "missing Scout rescue" and other breaking news, somebody failed to arrange for Closed-Captions on a bulletin about the mountainside fire in Draper.
Apparently, someone filed a complaint with the FCC, which is encouraging people to make these reports.
Anybody else gotten "dinged" yet, locally?
(We are getting a lot of angry calls on CC issues, usually insisting that we caption "every word of everything", even though we try to stay within the law and give the info out in whatever way works. They seem to be from the same group of people.
Do we just refuse to air a breaking story if there is no captioning person available? That's going to be a question we have to ask. If the phones are down in a storm or earthquake, and the captioning people can't connect, do we ignore our obligation to the rest of the viewers?.......Hmmmm!?!?)
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Post by seattlefollower on Sept 20, 2011 9:22:09 GMT -6
(We are getting a lot of angry calls on CC issues, usually insisting that we caption "every word of everything", even though we try to stay within the law and give the info out in whatever way works. They seem to be from the same group of people. Do we just refuse to air a breaking story if there is no captioning person available? That's going to be a question we have to ask. If the phones are down in a storm or earthquake, and the captioning people can't connect, do we ignore our obligation to the rest of the viewers?.......Hmmmm!?!?) Maybe one person in the station staff could be trained in some ASL basics. I still remember seeing footage of that recently when a governor was speaking somewhere in the south. |
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Post by kenglish on Sept 20, 2011 9:45:53 GMT -6
I'm afraid that that wouldn't do it either. There seems to be a kick to do everything with, literally, on-screen CC.
I've suggested that any unscripted info (scripted would appear via the prompter-fed CC's) be added to the prompter as "talking points", so it would show up on the CC....maybe in parentheses or something, to let viewers know it's not verbatim.
I saw where CNN was being sued because the captions were not on their web video, although the entire script was printed just below it. The complaint seemed to be, that the captions had to appear on top of the video.
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Post by CAwasinNJ on Sept 20, 2011 21:14:47 GMT -6
Time to put my editorial hat on.
Television is a combination visual/aural medium. Period. The FCC needs to spend their time and resources doing what they were created to do. That is, police the technical parameters that broadcasters have to comply with. It is not their job to tell broadcasters how to run their business. It's funny how they keep repeating that they don't make decisions based on programming and then turn around and make rules about closed captioning and children's programming and required news issues discussion and a dozen other programming decisions. Meanwhile pirate stations that break every rule in the book and damage legitimate stations go untouched for years. I don't think it's a bad idea to throw out everything at the FCC and start over and try to get it right this time since what's there now is hopelessly broken.
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Terry
Silver Level Member
Posts: 488
Usual Listening Area: east Murray
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Post by Terry on Sept 21, 2011 7:52:17 GMT -6
HEAR, HEAR !!!
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Post by kenglish on Sept 21, 2011 8:17:19 GMT -6
Biggest problem is, the FCC works directly for Congress, and is not a part of any Federal department. So, Congress can use the FCC for whatever purposes they want, at any time. That makes it a political agency, and a political tool.
If anybody has a CC problem (or, any other problems), all they have to do is call us and we fix it. Lecturing us, or sic'ing the FCC on us, doesn't fix any problems, it just impedes us.
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Post by dxstuboy on Sept 21, 2011 18:45:01 GMT -6
I've said it before and I'll say it again, you can never please everybody. Our local stations here lack captions on a good chunk of their programming. I've seen a lot of commercials with no captions either.
I agree with CA though, the FCC should spend their time on real issues, like interference problems of FM stations (such as there are here).
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Post by David on Oct 1, 2011 1:29:10 GMT -6
I agree, the FCC needs to quit wasting its time on a few complaints about closed captioning and use its enforcement muscle for more important issues. Ever listen to the CB or amateur bands and some of the crap that goes on there? There are a lot of people that are using more watts on the CB band than some AM broadcast stations, and a lot of the foul language and jamming on the amateur bands has been going on for years. Supposedly this issue was taken care of a few years ago when local law enforcement was given the authority to bust illegal CB and ham operators, but most cops have more important things to do than hunt down someone interfering with the neighbor's TV. Time for the FCC to clean up the airwaves!
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Post by CAwasinNJ on Oct 1, 2011 3:45:29 GMT -6
There's a problem with local law enforcement trying to enforce FCC rules. They don't have the authority. That's been proven repeatedly in court cases, most famously in the Radio Free Brattleboro case. Of course I'm not so sure the dimwits breaking the rules know that, but that doesn't make it right. I'm all for enforcement of valid rules, but there are procedures that have to be followed.
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