Washington—The Radio-Television News Directors Association and a Coalition of more than 70 media organizations filed with the Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday a statement of support for Comcast, which is facing $20,000 in fines for what the FCC considers willful violation of its sponsorship identification rules.

RTNDA and the Coalition argue that the decisions by the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau inject the government agency into protected newsgathering and editorial activities to an unprecedented and inappropriate degree, in clear conflict with journalists' First Amendment rights.

The FCC’s fines stem from the use of video news release (VNR) footage that the regional news channel CN8 used to create stories about sleeping aids, health and fitness, life insurance, laptop computer security and the anniversary of a popular baking mix. CN8 producers accessed the material via the CNN Newsource service, and received no payment or other favor for broadcasting the material. Nonetheless, the FCC says the stories should have contained specific sponsorship identifications, since, in the FCC's judgment, their content amounted to promotional material.

RTNDA and the Coalition state the Comcast decisions mistakenly apply the FCC's rules and ignore Congress's intent in adopting the so-called payola statute. That statute essentially sought to require identifications in situations where money was paid to a station in exchange for the broadcast of certain material, RTNDA and the coalition argue. The legislative history shows Congress did not intend for the FCC to dictate how stations should make identifications when they independently decide to use third-party resource materials such as written press releases or their modern day electronic equivalents. Such news releases provide journalists with story ideas, quotations, images and background information for possible reference or inclusion in news stories.

By making electronic journalists strictly responsible for the motives and connections of their sources, and to closely regulate the way in which these journalists use and identify source material and information, RTNDA and the Coalition add, the FCC has embarked upon an extraordinarily dangerous slippery slope toward government censorship, and has imposed a chilling effect on the use all types of third-party materials that electronic journalists may independently decide are of interest or importance to their viewers.

“The heart of this matter really is the FCC’s outright intrusion into the newsroom,” says RTNDA president Barbara Cochran. “Congress, the Supreme Court—even the FCC itself—have all determined that the government does not get to make editorial decisions better left to the free and independent journalists.”

The topic of VNR usage is not new, but has gained renewed attention in the past year by special interest groups and broadcast regulators. The Center for Media and Democracy, which identifies itself as a citizen watchdog group, issued two reports in 2006 that claimed widespread use of unidentified VNR material in local newscasts. RTNDA disputes CMD’s findings, noting that much of the information in the reports is biased, embellished and inaccurate. The FCC sent letters of inquiry to each of the more than 100 stations listed in the reports, beginning an enforcement investigation.

RTNDA has had a policy for nearly two decades that electronic journalists should identify the origin of all outside material used in news programming. As a resource for broadcast journalists who are concerned about how and when to use materials from third-party sources, RTNDA has developed detailed ethics guidelines for best practices. To view those guidelines, click here .