How could this be breaking any FCC rules?

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

While this isn't a classy contest, I don't see how NOW could figure this to be a violation in the eyes of the FCC. I don't have a problem that NOW wants to deal with self-esteem issues. However, I am very tempted to file a complaint against their campaing when it starts because it would be using the same words and subject matter that they are complaining about now.

On a side note - I have noticed that all the radio stations in town are doing edits to anything that might be considered a bad word (usually they are just playing the word backwards). These edits are happening on songs that I know for a fact have been playing edit free for over 15 years, if not longer.

I recently called a local Bonneville station to see how far things had gone - I called my friend that produces a show there. I asked about Meridith Brook's song "Bitch" which used to be in their "A" rotation (meaning it would get played one or two times every four hours but they just were never allowed to say the name of the song). After the fines that the FCC handed out this year, they pulled it from their rotation for good. Bonneville is a Mormon owned broadcast company and has possibly the most squeaky clean stations in the country - they even force their morning shows to come to work in biz casual clothes despite that no one is at the station at 3am when they get there.

Anyway - here is the story:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=519&e=28&u=/ap/20050103/ap_on_re_us/breast_contest

Breast Enlargement Contest Draws Fire
By VICKIE CHACHERE, Associated Press Writer

TAMPA, Fla. - Radio giant Clear Channel Communications has come under fire from women's health advocates over a Christmas contest in which stations granted breast enlargement surgeries to women in four cities.

In the "Breast Christmas Ever" contest, 13 women were awarded the procedure after writing essays to the stations explaining why they wanted larger breasts. A Tampa station claimed to receive more than 91,000 entries.

Clear Channel said it had nothing to do with the contest and that it was a decision by local station managers to hold the promotion. The contest was aired on Clear Channel stations in Tampa, Jacksonville, St. Louis and Detroit.

contest has drawn the ire of both the National Research Center for Women & Families and the National Organization for Women. NOW has urged its supporters to file complaints with the Federal Communications Commission against Clear Channel and its stations.

The controversy comes within months of Clear Channel paying a record $1.75 million fine to resolve indecency complaints against New York-based shock jock Howard Stern, Tampa radio personality "Bubba the Love Sponge" and others. The station formally agreed to "clean up its act," FCC Chairman Michael Powell said in June.

While neither women's group is alleging the breast surgery contest violated decency standards, they are complaining the contest promotes potentially dangerous surgery and leaves its winners with no legal remedies should the surgery go awry. Under the rules, winners must be at least 18 and sign a waiver protecting the company from all liability claims.

"I try not to be judgmental about whether a large radio station should be giving away free toys to children instead of free breast augmentation," said Diana Zuckerman, president of the National Research Center for Women & Families, a health advocacy organization.

NOW is urging the public to send e-mails to Clear Channel and the FCC to complain about what it considers a "degrading and unethical contest." About 3,400 messages have been sent to the FCC and Clear Channel, NOW said Monday.

Jennifer Gery, a spokeswoman for Clear Channel, said the company had no oversight of the contests and didn't sponsor them.

"There is no reason to be concerned because it's not a Clear Channel-sponsored contest, Gery said. "We empower our local manager to make programming decisions."

David Fiske, a spokesman for the FCC, said the agency does not regulate the content of radio station contests unless it violates decency standards. The FCC only requires radio stations to conduct contests exactly by the stated rules and to fully disclose the terms of the contest.

NOW has been active in lobbying the Food and Drug Administration against the marketing of silicone breast implants and has an ongoing "Love Your Body" campaign aimed at countering what it says are unrealistic body images promoted in the entertainment industry.

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you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
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[mr2mk1g 10]

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they are complaining the contest promotes potentially dangerous surgery and leaves its winners with no legal remedies should the surgery go awry. Under the rules, winners must be at least 18 and sign a waiver protecting the company from all liability claims.

Not sure why there'd be no legal remedy... the radio station's waiver won't have any impact on a medical negligence claim against the doctor were something like that to happen. The fact that the woman involved won't have paid for anything herself has absolutely no impact on a negligence claim. Am I missing something odd about the US system?

Still, I'm sure this isn't the first time an argument raised by "NOW" made absolutely no sense at all.

[happythoughts 0]

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they are complaining the contest promotes potentially dangerous surgery and leaves its winners with no legal remedies should the surgery go awry. Under the rules, winners must be at least 18 and sign a waiver protecting the company from all liability claims.

Not sure why there'd be no legal remedy... the radio station's waiver won't have any impact on a medical negligence claim against the doctor were something like that to happen. The fact that the woman involved won't have paid for anything herself has absolutely no impact on a negligence claim. Am I missing something odd about the US system?

Still, I'm sure this isn't the first time an argument raised by "NOW" made absolutely no sense at all.

The waiver is a standard thing. Other stations give away cars. You sign a waiver that says that the station is not responsible for the car or the results of its operation.

91,000 women sent in entries. If they are over 18, and have the legal right to sign contracts, buy a car, buy a house, and run for Congress - why does NOW think they can't make this decision?

Simple, NOW hasn't supported women for years. They are just a political machine aimed at filling their own pockets. They lost all legitimacy as an advocate for women years ago.