FACT SHEET

Original issue date: November 1994
UPDATED January, 2000

RELIGIOUS BROADCASTING RUMOR DENIED

A rumor has been circulating since 1975 that Madalyn Murray O'Hair, a widely-known, self-proclaimed atheist, proposed that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) consider limiting or banning religious programming. This rumor is NOT true. It has also been circulated repeatedly that Ms. O'Hair was granted an FCC hearing to discuss her proposal. This, too, is NOT true.

There is no federal law or regulation that gives the FCC the authority to prohibit radio and television stations from presenting religious programs. Actually, the Communications Act of 1934, which created the Commission, specifically prohibits the FCC from censoring broadcast material and interfering with freedom of speech in broadcasting.

The FCC cannot direct any broadcaster to present or withold any announcements or programs on religion and the FCC cannot act as an arbitrator on the insights or accuracy of such material.

Broadcasters, not the FCC, nor any other governmental agency, have the sole responsibility for selecting the programming that is aired by their stations.

Since 1975, the FCC has received and responded to over 30 MILLION inquiries about this rumor. Every effort has been made by the FCC to advise the public of the falsehood of this rumor. (The FCC continues to receive over 1,000,000 inquiries per year on this issue, alone.)

The laws and the FCC's policies on broadcast of religious programming have agreed in numerous publications (including newspapers, religious publications, TV Guide, and Time Magazine) and have been discussed in religious group meetings.

- - - FCC - - -

If you want even more detailed information,
you can read about it directly from the
FCC's WEBSITE.

(The preceeding text was quoted from an official FCC letter.)

Imagine if the resources spent on this FALSE RUMOR were, instead, given to the Lord's work. Please do your part to spread the word that this "Petition RM2493" is FALSE. If someone gives you a copy of it, please inform them that it is UNTRUE and has been circulating since the 1970's. Even the American Atheist's organization, itself, has attempted to refute this "petition" because of the constant barrage of inquiries. They are NOT involved in this issue, and never have been.

RECENT NEWS: This HOAX petetion has been given another breath of life, now threatening to remove the popular TV show, "Touched by an Angel" because it frequently mentions God. THIS IS TOTALLY FALSE! (The show was cancelled years ago by the producers because it had been running for seven years, and they wanted to move on to other things.) Recent re-releases of this old HOAX are now connecting Dr James Dobson, of Focus on the Family with this petition. THIS IS FALSE! In fact, Dr Dobson has recorded a Public Service Announcement refuting this, which some Christian stations have been airing for several years, now.

As the FCC has said over and over, they do not have the authority to "censor" GOD from broadcast programming. Their recent attempt to regulate the religious content of SOME Non-Commercial TV stations was soundly rejected and overturned.

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