Washington channel accidentally plays pornographic clip during weather forecast
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After the broadcast, it was revealed that the channel has broken broadcast rules. Parents Television and Media Council (PTC) wrote a letter calling for action to the channel
Viewers of a CBS-affiliated news channel, KREM, were subjected to obscene pornographic clip during a weather forecast being aired in Washington.
The famous meteorologist Michelle Boss was on-air reporting the weather update in the 6pm programme. There were two screens on her one background. While one showed the weather report, the other one accidentally played a 13-seconds-long pornographic clip.
Boss and her co-anchor, Cody Proctor, were unaware of what was happening on the screens behind their backs. The two reporters continued giving weather updates. The screen was quickly then switched to weather footage.
As the network realised their mistake, they issued a public apology in their 11pm programme. "Those of us here at KREM 2 want to apologise for something that happened in our 6 pm newscast tonight," said the station. "An inappropriate video aired in the first part of the show. We are diligently working to make sure something like this doesn't happen again."
After the broadcast, it was revealed that the channel has broken broadcast rules. Parents Television and Media Council (PTC) wrote a letter calling for action to the channel.
“It is illegal to air indecent material between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. over the publicly-owned airwaves. As a licensee of the broadcast spectrum, a violation of the congressionally-mandated and FCC-enforced indecency law can warrant financial sanctions up to $325,000 per incident. The FCC has levied fines for similar such violations as the one KREM appears to have committed,” the letter by PTC President Tim Winter read.
He also doubted that the clip was played by mistake and questioned why is it always obscene content that is played ‘by mistake’.
“Let there be no suggestion that the airing of the pornographic content might have been an “accident” or a “mistake.” Someone with the wherewithal to pass that content through the control room did so intentionally. If it were not aired by someone’s design, why is it always porn that gets aired “by accident” instead of innocuous content?” Winter said.