Some people really like adhering to the letter of the law, even if that law is actually an imaginary law with no actual legal grounding.
TheCollegeFix reported that two students who hosted a radio show, “Deplorable Radio,” have been threatened with cancellation after saying the word “tranny” on the air. Brandon Albrecht and Taylor Lehmann kicked off the air by a student station manager, along with a UMMPD officer. The manager told the students that they had “violated FCC law by saying a word that was never allowed on the air, ‘tranny.’”
Citing FCC regulations, the manager told the students that “tranny” was a “hate slur … not allowed on radio.” She repeated it again, “That is a specific hate speech word never allowed on radio in the same way that you can never say ‘cocksucker’ on radio.”
However, the manager had no idea what she was talking about, citing an FCC regulation that did not actually exist. The FCC banned “obscene, indecent, and profane language” from the airwaves. The definitions of these words are chiefly sexual in content.
In addition, the FCC states that it is “barred by law from trying to prevent the broadcast of any point of view. The Communications Act prohibits the FCC from censoring broadcast material, in most cases, and from making any regulation that would interfere with freedom of speech. Expressions of views that do not involve a “clear and present danger of serious, substantive evil” come under the protection of the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of the press and prevents suppression of these expressions by the FCC. According to an FCC opinion on this subject, “the public interest is best served by permitting free expression of views.” This principle ensures that the most diverse and opposing opinions will be expressed, even though some may be highly offensive.”
So the radio station manager, not the students, broke the law by preventing the broadcast. In a board meeting with the students, the board “openly admitted that the hosts had not in fact broken FCC rules by saying the word “tranny.” The board, however, claimed that they had ‘received complaints the week before that said [Albrecht and Lehmann] sounded like [they] were under the influence, which is an FCC violation.’”
Later, the students were told that while they didn’t break FCC violations, they did not “play at least two new songs per hour.” The two hosts are convinced that because they used the word “tranny,” they have come under fire. Albrecht and Lehmann “refuse to resign.”
