More on how to effectively register a complaint against Laura Ingraham from ipsos at Daily Kos (rendering most of our previous directions inoperative).
Short version: Angry complaints to TRN and Laura Ingraham might feel good, but accomplish little. "[Y]ou will only get results," says ipsos, "if you make [your complaint] against the STATION you heard carrying the show. That's something the FCC can sink its teeth into, at least in theory."
Find the station's carrying the Laura Ingraham Show here.
Rather than e-mail, as we've been recommending, ipsos recommends hard copy via certified mail to local affiliate "cc'd to the FCC."
All of ipsos' sage advice after the flip.
An FCC primer ... from someone who spends way too much time dealing with them. The FCC has no - zero, zip, zilch, nada - regulatory oversight over syndicated programming per se. So complaints about Talk Radio Network or the Laura Ingraham Show will get a deaf ear.
The way to have an impact on this one is to go after the entity where the FCC does have oversight, and that's the individual station licensee. So when you file your complaint at the FCC, you will only get results if you make it against the STATION you heard carrying the show. That's something the FCC can sink its teeth into, at least in theory.
Many, if not most, of Ingraham's key affiliates in large markets are owned by Salem Communications, a large Christian broadcaster. Their politics don't agree with mine, but they pride themselves on being responsible broadcasters, and they do try to play by the rules and keep a clean record at the FCC. If their biggest stations (WMCA in New York, WNTP in Philadelphia, KSKY in Dallas, WIND in Chicago, etc.) start getting a pile of FCC complaints against them because of Laura Ingraham, they'll at least have some words with Talk Radio Network.
And here's ispsos on how to register a complaint.
I would ... send hard copy, certified, return receipt requested, to your local affiliate, cc'd to the FCC and requesting it be placed in the station's public inspection file. There is no "TRN" license file at the FCC, since TRN has no license, thus nothing to go after there at the FCC end.
I'm going to rejigger my letter and send it as per ipsos' instructions. Hope you will, too.
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