[raccoonradio]

The discussion thread after this is interesting. I will say that pretty soon broadcast licenses in places like the mid-Atlantic, where Camping has several stations, are due for renewal soon. This non-Rapture may not necessarily be grounds for non-renewal but who knows. The next post, by jas2525, has more details (also it’s mentioned the freedom of religion makes it unlikely the govt. could interfere—
as Goat Radio Cowboy puts it, “how are you going to feel when some Federal agency shows up at the religious establishment that your family has participated in for 3 or 4 generations and starts telling you what you may and may not say or write as part of your system of faith.”)

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following by jas2525:

If the FCC were to take action against Family Radio’s licenses, it would be under the “hoax rule,” 73.1217, which reads thusly:

No licensee or permittee of any broadcast station shall broadcast false information concerning a crime or a catastrophe if:

(a) The licensee knows this information is false;

(b) It is forseeable that broadcast of the information will cause substantial public harm, and

(c) Broadcast of the information does in fact directly cause substantial public harm.

Any programming accompanied by a disclaimer will be presumed not to pose foreseeable harm if the disclaimer clearly characterizes the program as a fiction and is presented in a way that is reasonable under the circumstances.

Note: For purposes of this rule, “public harm” must begin immediately, and cause direct and actual damage to property or to the health or safety of the general public, or diversion of law enforcement or other public health and safety authorities from their duties. The public harm will be deemed foreseeable if the licensee could expect with a significant degree of certainty that public harm would occur. A “crime” is any act or omission that makes the offender subject to criminal punishment by law. A “catastrophe” is a disaster or imminent disaster involving violent or sudden event affecting the public.

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[thackney]

Some of those followers don't give up so easily.

“Judgment Day has come and passed, but it was a spiritual judgment on the world,” he explains. “There is no more salvation. Salvation is over with. The fact is we have 153 days, and on the 21st of October, the world will end.”

Doomsday Believers Cope With An Intact World
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/23/136560695/doomsday-believers-cope-with-an-intact-world

[martin_fierro]

But it makes me wonder, is a hoax such as Camping's preaching and promising an actionable offense before the FCC?

Yeah, I wonder.

[DeFault User]

Harold Camping's advisory cost some members of the listening public their jobs, their life savings...

I believe this falls under the doctrine of....

caveat sucker

[VRWCmember]

But it makes me wonder, is a hoax such as Camping's preaching and promising an actionable offense before the FCC?

Ummm, only if you have an inherent tendency to believe that government just doesn't do enough to regulate everything. If you have a deep-rooted desire for government to get involved in every aspect of daily life to protect you from the dangers of a little too much of that nasty old freedom, then by all means this should invite an action by the FCC.

[LowOiL]

Should Family Radio be stripped of its licenses?

No, it is that simple.