Tegna agrees to a $225,000 settlement with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) probe
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and media company Tegna have entered into a consent decree to settle an investigation following the accidental airing of a pornographic clip during a newscast on KREM, a Tegna-owned station in Spokane, Washington.
The incident, which occurred on October 17, 2021, received widespread national media attention. During the 6 p.m. newscast, pornographic material was displayed for about 13 seconds on a monitor that was visible behind meteorologist Michelle Boss during the weather forecast segment. The station had no prior knowledge or authorization for the content's broadcast.
In response to the incident, KREM launched an internal investigation in collaboration with local law enforcement. They discovered that the clip was displayed through the screencasting feature built into the monitor, which transmitted video directly via an unsecured legacy local wireless network.
As part of the consent decree, Tegna agreed to make a voluntary contribution of $225,500. The company also agreed to implement a compliance plan to avoid possible future violations of FCC rules. This plan includes the designation of a senior corporate manager to develop, implement, and administer the compliance measures.
Tegna took immediate action to secure its monitoring equipment and network, although specific technical details of these measures have not been publicly detailed. On October 21, 2021, Tegna directed all its stations to disable all screencasting features and network connectivity on monitors located in station facilities.
KREM quickly acted to curtail the broadcast of the complained-of material and apologized to viewers during its next newscast. The Tegna investigation could not determine the person or persons responsible for the incident.
The FCC's consent decree with Tegna underscores the importance of securing broadcast infrastructure against unauthorized content intrusion. The settlement serves as a reminder to all broadcasters to take necessary steps to protect their audiences from inappropriate content.
- The FCC and media company Tegna have agreed to a compliance plan focused on avoiding future violations of FCC rules, as a result of the incident where pornographic content was accidentally aired on KREM.
- Tegna, in response to the incident, launched an internal investigation in collaboration with local law enforcement to determine the cause of the content's broadcast.
- The unsecured legacy local wireless network was found to be the source of the content's transmission during the incident, after the internal investigation by KREM.
- As part of the consent decree, Tegna agreed to make a voluntary contribution of $225,500, beyond implementing the compliance plan.
- To secure its monitoring equipment and network, Tegna took immediate action following the incident, although the specific technical details have not been publicly disclosed.
- In the aftermath of the incident, KREM quickly acted to curtail the broadcast of the complained-of material and apologized to viewers during its next newscast.
- The settlement between the FCC and Tegna serves as a reminder to all broadcasters about the importance of securing their broadcast infrastructure against unauthorized content intrusion.
- With the rise of technology, gadgets like smartphones and the banking-and-insurance industry have become active players in content consumption and distribution, requiring proper content security measures.
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