Jimmy Kimmel, Walking Dead part of $600,000 penalties for false emergency alerts
On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission reached a handful of settlements with media outlets following investigations into whether they misused the emergency alert system tone.
The agency found that ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, AMC’s The Walking Dead, Animal Planet’s Lone Star Law, and Meruelo Radio Holdings all misused the emergency alert system (EAS) tone, a sound that is blasted out to television and smartphones to warn people of emergencies like tornadoes, floods, and missing children. The companies have agreed to pay a total of more than $600,000 in civil penalties for the violations.
The FCC has a rule against using the tone outside of actual emergencies to “protect the integrity” of the system. That way, listeners aren’t...