The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. An independent U.S. government agency overseen by Congress, the Commission is the federal agency responsible for implementing and enforcing America’s communications law and regulations.

The FCC has two databases that contain complaints submitted to them for possible investigation. This includes the FCC Enforcement Bureau Database and the FCC Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau database.

Under the FOIA, you can request a search of both databases for keywords/phrases. In this particular case, I submitted a request in November 2019 for complaints containing the phrase “Fake News.”

Below, you will find more than 1,800 complaints about various people, news stories and networks.

Document Archive

FCC Complaints About “Fake News” Through November 2019 [1,806 Pages, 5MB]

Loading...

Taking too long?

Reload document

| Open in new tab

Download [4.88 MB]

The post Complaints Submitted to the FCC About “Fake News” first appeared on The Black Vault.

Background

On January 12, 2018, CNN published the following:

President Donald Trump expressed frustration behind closed doors with people coming to the US from “shithole countries,” sources told CNN on Thursday.

One of the sources briefed on the Thursday Oval Office meeting with lawmakers confirmed Trump asked, “Why do we want all these people from ‘shithole countries’ coming here?”

CNN, along with other networks, began running stories regarding the comment. Though uncharacteristically, many networks (arguably, mostly CNN) had no problem saying “Shithole” without any type of censorship in the form of a “beep” or finding a different way to reference the statement (ie: “s-hole” etc.)

In January of 2018, I filed a report to the FCC for complaints filed that contain the word “Shithole”.  This would encompass the complaints sent in to the FCC about this statement.

The result shows a barrage of complaints on various networks from all over the United States.

Document Archive

 FCC Flooded With Complaints About News Stories Regarding Donald Trump’s “S**thole” Comment on January 11, 2018 [165 Pages, 1.9MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/fcc/TrumpLanguageComplaints-2018.pdf

The post FCC Flooded With Complaints About News Stories Regarding Donald Trump’s “S**thole” Comment on January 11, 2018 first appeared on The Black Vault.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is an American late-night talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. Produced by Spartina Productions and CBS Television Studios, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is the second iteration of CBS’s Late Show franchise. Stay Human, led by bandleader Jon Batiste, serves as the program’s house band, and the announcer is program writer Jen Spyra.

The program is taped at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City and airs live to tape in most U.S. markets at 11:35 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, and 10:35 in the Central and is repeated several times a day.

On May 1, 2017, Colbert made lewd jokes against President Donald Trump — creating quite a public backlash. These comments included:

“Sir, you attract more skinheads than free Rogaine.”

“You have more people marching against you than cancer.”

“You talk like a sign language gorilla that got hit in the head.”

“In fact, the only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin’s c–k holster.”

I filed a FOIA request to the FCC for all complaints sent in from the public. Although I expected quite a few, I had no idea that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert would have generated well more than 5,700 of them!  Most of which, I would assume, came after the May 1st show.

Due to the volume of them, the FCC sent the first 100 in the initial response, seeking confirmation if I would like the rest.

On May 25, 2017, I confirmed via email with the FCC that the majority of the complaints on this show, were due to the May 1st rant by Colbert. The email stated:

John, we received less than 10 complaints about Stephen Colbert / Late Show from January 2017 to the end of April 2017. As previously noted, we received slightly less than 5900 complaints since his May 1^st show.

Document Archive

 The Late Show with Stephen Colbert TV Complaints [104 Pages, 3.4MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/TV/StephenColbert-2017Sample.pdf

The post The Late Show with Stephen Colbert first appeared on The Black Vault.

Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve (NYRE) is an annual New Year’s Eve television special broadcast by ABC. The special broadcasts from New York City’s Times Square, and prominently features coverage of its annual ball drop event, along with live and pre-recorded musical performances by popular musicians from Times Square and Hollywood, respectively.

Dick Clark hosted New Year’s Rockin’ Eve annually from 1973 through 2004, and served as a Times Square correspondent alongside Peter Jennings for ABC News’s special coverage of year 2000 celebrations. The complications of a stroke suffered by Clark in December 2004 had a major effect on his role in the special. After having Regis Philbin serve as a guest host for 2005, Clark returned for the 2006 edition to serve as a host: due to speech impediments that had resulted from his stroke, he ceded hosting duties to Ryan Seacrest.

The death of Dick Clark on April 18, 2012 left Ryan Seacrest as the sole host of New Year’s Rockin’ Eve beginning with its 2012–13 edition. Seacrest has most recently been joined by Jenny McCarthy as a correspondent from Times Square, with Fergie of The Black Eyed Peas serving as the presenter of the Hollywood concert segments. Through its deal with Dick Clark Productions, New Year’s Rockin’ Eve will remain on ABC through at least 2024.

TV Show Complaints

 2016/2017 Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin Eve FCC Complaints [6 Pages, 4.6MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/TV/2017-243FCC-NYRE20162017.pdf

The post 2016/2017 Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin Eve first appeared on The Black Vault.

The Walking Dead is an American horror drama television series developed by Frank Darabont, based on the comic book series of the same name by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. Andrew Lincoln plays the show’s lead character, sheriff’s deputy Rick Grimes, who awakens from a coma discovering a world overrun by zombies, commonly referred to as “walkers”. Grimes reunites with his family and becomes the leader of a group he forms with other survivors. Together they struggle to survive and adapt in a post-apocalyptic world filled with walkers and opposing groups of survivors, who are often more dangerous than the walkers themselves.

Much of the series takes place within the Atlanta metro area and surrounding countryside. Later, the setting transitions to other parts of the country including Alexandria, Virginia.

The Walking Dead premiered in the United States on October 31, 2010, exclusively shown on cable television channel AMC and internationally on Fox International Channels. As a result of very favorable Nielsen ratings that rank the show unprecedentedly high for a cable series, AMC has renewed the series each year. Beginning with its third season, The Walking Dead attracts the most 18- to 49-year-old viewers of any cable or broadcast television series. It is presently airing its seventh season, which began on October 23, 2016, and has been renewed for an eighth season to air in late 2017.

FCC Complaints

 The Walking Dead FCC Complaints, January 1, 2016 – October 30, 2016 [52 Pages, 10.7MB]

https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/TV/thewalkingdead-fcccomplaints-2016.pdf

The post The Walking Dead first appeared on The Black Vault.