United States v. WIYN Radio, Inc.

464 F. Supp. 101, 44 Rad. Reg. 2d (P & F) 1501, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7208
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Georgia
DecidedDecember 15, 1978
DocketCiv. A. C77-65R
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 464 F. Supp. 101 (United States v. WIYN Radio, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. WIYN Radio, Inc., 464 F. Supp. 101, 44 Rad. Reg. 2d (P & F) 1501, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7208 (N.D. Ga. 1978).

Opinion

ORDER

MURPHY, District Judge.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

The United States instituted this suit to recover a forfeiture imposed by the Federal Communications Commission upon defendant WIYN for repeated violations of the personal attack rule, 47 C.F.R. § 73.123(a). In the trial of this case both plaintiff and defendant presented testimonial and documentary evidence. At the close of trial, the Court requested that the parties submit *103 proposed findings of fact, conclusions of law, and post-trial briefs addressing: (1) the permissible scope of the Court’s authority to review the facts surrounding the imposition of the forfeiture; (2) the meaning of “repeated” as used in 47 U.S.C. § 503(b)(1)(B); and (3) such other issues as counsel wished to bring to the Court’s attention.

Defendant was a licensee of standard broadcast station WIYN in Rome, Georgia, on April 23,1971. On that date during the broadcast of the program Comment the Commentator made statements the United States contends violated the personal attack rule. Defendant is alleged to have never notified the subject of the attack of the April 23, 1971 broadcast. On May 20, 1971, a request was made for time to reply.

On July 28,1971, the Commission issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture in the amount of $1000.00 for defendant’s alleged violations of the Federal Communications Commission Rules and Regulations. In a decision of May 24, 1972, the Federal Communications Commission found defendant had repeatedly violated its rules and ordered defendant to pay a $1000.00 forfeiture. On May 28, 1975 the Commission denied reconsideration of its order. This action is before this Court in an effort to recover the forfeiture.

ISSUES AND FINDINGS

This forfeiture action was brought as a result of the Commission’s finding that defendant repeatedly failed to meet the duties imposed upon it under the personal attack doctrine. The government brought this suit pursuant to 47 U.S.C. § 504(a) which provides:

The forfeitures provided for in this chapter . . shall be recoverable in a civil suit in the name of the United States brought in the district where the person . has its principal operating office . . . : provided, That any suit for the recovery of a forfeiture imposed pursuant to the provisions of this chapter shall be a trial de novo .

In a trial de novo to collect this civil penalty, the Commission’s “decision to seek enforcement becomes . . . not an adjudication but merely a decision to prosecute.” United States v. International Harvester Co., 387 F.Supp. 1338, 1340 (D.D.C.1974).

The personal attack rule, codified at 47 C.F.R. § 73.123(a), requires a licensee to notify a person or organization who is the subject of an attack upon its honesty, integrity or some like personal quality, within seven days of the attack’s occurrence, to provide a script or tape of the attack and to take the initiative in offering a reasonable opportunity to reply over the licensee’s facilities. Straus Communications, Inc. v. F.C.C., 174 U.S.App.D.C. 149, 530 F.2d 1001, 1007 (1976). For the rule to be invoked, however, the attack must have occurred within the context of a discussion of a controversial issue of public importance. Id. 174 U.S.App.D.C. at 155, 530 F.2d at 1008; Personal Attacks, Political Editorials, 8 F.C. C.2d 721, 725 (1967). Thus to prevail in this action, plaintiff must establish:

(1) that the statements of Reverend Scruton concerning IAD and its newsletter, HOMEFRONT, constituted an attack upon the honesty, character, integrity or like personal qualities of IAD and HOMEFRONT-,
(2) that this attack occurred during the presentation of views on a controversial issue of public importance; and
(3) that the defendant failed repeatedly to comply with the notice and offer requirements of the personal attack rule.

The April 23 broadcast contained the following statements:

You have the organization, you have its head, and you have its papers. Now who can deny that HOMEFRONT is a publication of a subversive organization and certainly its head is an avowed Communist. . [His] HOMEFRONT magazine and [his] IAD are definitely subversive. They are to the Far Left

In determining what would constitute a personal attack, “the contemporaneous attitude becomes all-important, temporary though it may be.” L. Yankwich, Trends in Law Affecting Communication, 15 F.R.D. 291, 294 (1954); accord, Utah State Farm *104 Bureau Federation v. National Farmers Union Service Corp., 198 F.2d 20 (10th Cir. 1952). And as Yankwich observed:

“And it is of little moment whether the statement describes plaintiff [in a libel suit] as a communist or as one having communistic sympathies and affiliations for, as has been observed, ‘any difference is one of degree only.’ . Since the end of the second World War, and the rise of Russian expansionism with its absorption of bordering eastern countries, ... the term ‘Communism’ means the Russian type which has brought on the cold war, the attack in Korea, . . . under the fiction of ‘Chinese volunteers,’ and has sought, through revolution and rebellion, to stir up unrest throughout the world. Because the words ‘Communism’ and ‘Communist’ connote this type of movement, in democratic countries, especially in the United States, they are words of opprobrium.

Thus courts have consistently held since the second World War that writing or speaking of a person or organization as being a “communist” or “communist sympathizer” may subject that person or organization to such public hatred and contempt that it constitutes libel. See, e. g., Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Commission v. McGrath, 341 U.S. 123, 71 S.Ct. 624, 95 L.Ed. 817 (1950); Utah State Farm Bureau Federation v. National Farmers Union Service Corp., supra; Spanel v. Pegler, 160 F.2d 619 (7th Cir. 1947); Grant v. Reader’s Digest Association, 151 F.2d 733 (2d Cir. 1945), cert. denied, 326 U.S. 797, 66 S.Ct. 492, 90 L.Ed. 485 (1946); Foltz v. News Syndicate Co., Inc., 114 F.Supp. 599 (S.D.N.Y.1953); Cole v. Loew’s, Inc., 8 F.R.D. 508 (S.D.Cal.1948) reversed on other grounds,

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464 F. Supp. 101, 44 Rad. Reg. 2d (P & F) 1501, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7208, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-wiyn-radio-inc-gand-1978.