Complaint filed over TV coverage of Henderson jail incident

The Henderson Police Officers Association has filed formal complaints against KVBC Channel 3 for airing a videotaped beating of a female Henderson Detention Center inmate.

Jack Brooks, president of the police association, said complaints were filed with the Federal Communications Commission and the Radio Television News Directors Association.

"Channel 3 just showed clips of the tape that were beneficial to them...they sensationalized it instead of reporting the news," Brooks said. "We sent the letter to the FCC saying this isn't right."

Rolla Cleavers, general manager of KVBC, said he was "unable to comment at this time regarding the complaints."

Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson and the City Council sent letters to the FCC and the news directors association "in strong support" of the police association's position, spokeswoman Vicki Taylor said.

"KVBC has, through their reporting, accused our detention personnel of police brutality and civil rights violations," the letters, which were sent out in September, say. "We are appalled and dismayed by KVBC's total lack of regard for accurate and balanced reporting."

Brooks said the FCC and the news directors association have yet to respond.

FCC officials could not be reached for comment.

Brooks said he has turned the matter over to the police association's lawyer.

"We are waiting on his recommendation to decide whether to file a lawsuit," he said.

The police association filed the complaint with the FCC before an Aug. 31 deadline regarding the renewal of Channel 3's broadcasting license.

But according to Dennis Wharton, senior vice president of corporate communications for the National Association of Broadcasters, "it would be unheard of for the FCC to deny a station's license renewal purely on the basis of a news story. To my knowledge that has never happened."

Wharton said most times television license challenges are filed on the basis that a station is somehow not meeting the needs of the community, such as scheduling enough public interest programming.

"Challenges to license renewals happen occasionally, but rarely -- if ever -- on a news report," Wharton said.

Wharton also said the main reasons stations fail to get their license renewed is because the owners lied about the ownership structure or if they lied in some other way to the FCC.

"It is extremely rare for a station to lose a license, but it has happened," Wharton said.

This is not the first time KVBC, which is owned by Valley Broadcasting, has had a run-in with the FCC.

Last year, Valley Broadcasting beat a longstanding federal ban on broadcast advertising of casino gambling when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a federal judge's 1992 ruling that the ban violates broadcasters' freedom of speech.

MARK D. PRESTON of States News Service contributed to this report.

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