No Time Delay For TNT

Turner Sports President David Levy says he has no plans to put any of cable net TNT's sports on a time delay.

The issue came up after an S-word slipped into an on-air interview Sunday with NASCAR driver Robby Gordon. The network apologized, but that is as far is went, though NASCAR went farther.

"We consider this an isolated incident and NASCAR is taking decisive measures to curtail this happening in the future," said Levy in a statement. But, he said, "our NASCAR coverage and all sports coverage on our networks will continue to be shown live."

NASCAR late Monday fined Gordon $35,000 and deducted 50 Nextel points (how the stock jocks keep score).

Cable is not under the same gun as broadcast on cursing since the FCC does not regulate its speech.

NBC took some heat last October for NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s S-word in an on-air interview.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.