By STEVE WILSON   
        WASHINGTON (May 8, 2000)—Saying the Federal Communications Commission has become “all about exon- erating broadcasters instead of holding them accountable,” America's foremost consumer activist Ralph Nader today

Nader Testifies for Akre/Wilson

became the latest witness to give expert testimony on behalf of Jane Akre and Steve Wilson.
        Nader took time to support the two journalists despite a hectic schedule that has taken him to more than 30 states in the last few weeks of his presidential campaign.  He has promised to give testimony at the reporters' trial set to begin June 12 in Tampa.
        As with Walter  Cronkite who testified last month on behalf of the plaintiffs, the lead attorney for defendant Fox Television has indicated he will object to Nader’s testimony being heard by the jury on the grounds that Nader is really not an expert on the FCC.
        The journalists have already won an initial round in that battle when the trial court judge decided not to block Nader’s testimony despite strenuous objections from Fox at a hearing February 14.  Plaintiff Wilson argued then that Nader should be allowed to testify about the FCC requirement that all stations be operated in the public interest so that jurors can better judge whether Fox violated that standard in its conduct that prompted the lawsuit. 
        “As we told the judge, Ralph Nader is America's best expert on exactly what the public interest is," said Plaintiff Jane Akre.  "Following his testimony at trial, other witnesses will testify as to the particular facts of our case.  Then, the jurors can determine what interest was most important to WTVT, the public interest or it's own corporate interest in maximizing the profit it rakes in from use of the public airwaves."

        A key element of Fox’s defense strategy appears to be that even if some of the editing instructions given by lawyers and managers at WTVT might have slanted the story on rBGH, the broadcasting company is protected by the First Amendment and what the defendants say is the fact there is no law, rule or regulation to prohibit such distortion.

        “Can you point to even one single station which has been sanctioned by the FCC for any case of alleged distortion of the news?” asked Fox lawyer William McDaniels.
        Admitting the FCC has not investigated and prosecuted any such case, Nader said at one point, “We’re dealing with an agency going to extremes not to enforce the Communications Act.”  It is that law, adopted in 1934 and implement through FCC policy and actions, that requires all broadcasters to operate in the public interest.
        Nader, a long and frequent critic of the FCC, added, “They haven’t killed the public interest standard, but they certainly have anesthetized it!”
        The Fox lawyer pressed Nader on his opposition to the abolition of the Fairness Doctrine, suggesting the FCC’s policy against news slanting and distortion may have died with it.  The doctrine was abolished during the Reagan administration to the delight of broadcasters who claimed a law which forced them to be fair actually stifled free speech.
        “That claim was an observation so preposterous it hardly deserves any rebuttal,” Nader said.
        Also present for the Nader deposition was Gary Roberts, one of Fox's senior attorneys for its television station group based in Los Angeles.   
        Following the decision to appoint McDaniels and his Washington firm of Williams & Connolly as the lead defense attorneys in the case, Roberts and his LA colleagues have kept a low profile in the case, seldom appearing at any proceedings.
         "Not long after we filed this suit, Mr. Roberts once sneered at Steve and me that we'd never, ever even make it trial," said plaintiff Akre. "Now, whether he intended to or not, his star seems pretty well hitched to the outcome of the case Fox never wanted a jury to hear."  

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