Thursday, October 30, 2003

Department of Whatever Is the Opposite of 'Confidence-building'

After being asked to pay to appear on a talk show broadcast on airplanes by the Sky Radio Network, Joanne Doroshow, executive director of the Center for Justice and Democracy, a nonprofit organization that presents itself as a consumer-advocacy group, "was so angry that she directed lawyers for the center, whose board includes Erin Brockovich and Ralph Nader, to draft a complaint letter to the Federal Trade Commission, which the center intends to submit today. It asks that Sky Radio, which also produces programming for United, Delta, Northwest and several other airlines, be required to disclose prominently that its news-style programs are actually little more than paid advertisements."

Apart from the main issue at hand (and apart from the fact that the CJD is clearly a front for trial lawyers stonewalling against tort reform), there is also a question here of which agency has the authority to deal with this issue: is it the FTC? or the Federal Communications Commission? or the Department of Transportation?

Assuming it gets anywhere, this promises to be an interesting case.