My pal Paul Harris, who soars on radio station KTRS in St. Louis and on his website agrees with me that the story of NBC being fined for Sinead O'Connor's protest is so much hooey…
There is no way the FCC fined NBC $2.5mil for the Sinead O'Connor incident. The only time the FCC fines a broadcaster over content is when it is deemed to have violated the obscenity standard — vague as that is, Sinead's ripping up the Pope's picture doesn't come close to qualifying. Hey, they weren't even fined when Charles Rocket dropped the F-bomb!
Also, the network wouldn't have been fined, the affiliates would, since they're the ones licensed and regulated for content by the Commission. While NBC does have a division full of owned-and-operated stations, I (like you) am positive this fine was never levied against them or any other NBC affiliated station.
One more thing that I'm sure you know but your readers may need to be reminded of: the FCC does not monitor all broadcasts in this country for content or anything else. They have neither the staff nor the desire to do so (although they do have field agents checking technical requirements on an infrequent basis). The only way the Commission takes action is if there is a verifiable complaint from a viewer/listener, which must include an accurate transcript or recording of the supposedly offending segment. Then there's an investigation, the station is offered a chance to rebut, etc. etc. etc. I know that there are many Americans who believe the FCC should revoke licenses or fine stations because they didn't like what they themselves saw or heard, but it's rarely done, and absolutely never without details from a complainant.
Even then, tearing up the Pope's picture wouldn't even get mentioned in the FCC coffee break room, because instead they're busy dealing with an AM daytimer somewhere in Alabama that refuses to sign off at sunset and is overmodulating its carrier and interfering with another station's signal. Now that's a problem the Commission can and does sink its teeth into!
Indeed. I have also been told by a few folks that contrary to all accounts — including the recollections of both myself and my friend who was working on the show at the time, Nora Dunn did appear on the episode following the Andrew Dice Clay appearance. That would have been the last show of that season and her last show as a cast member of Saturday Night Live. One of those who wrote — David Goehner — says that she had almost nothing to do in it, and that in the "curtain calls" at the end, Jan Hooks held her hand in an emotional way. I don't remember that but we can check. That episode (hosted by Candice Bergen) reruns in the NBC Up All Night slot this coming Saturday night/Sunday morning.
Speaking of the confusion over which day a late night show is on — an issue that seems to matter to me and no one else — David asks when the clay animation episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien airs. NBC is saying Thursday…but of course, in most time zones, the episode we think of as the "Thursday night" episode actually airs at 12:35 AM Friday morning. That's the case here: It's the episode of Conan's program that airs right after Thursday night's Tonight Show. Some day, network promotions will get in sync with how we all program our VCRs and TiVos.