Broadcast Regulation and the First Amendment
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Description
In thinking about regulation of networks, one of the most basic questions is how far the free-speech guarantees of the first amendment allow Congress or a federal agency like the FCC to go. Acknowledging that no one could fully treat that question in a chapter of this length, let me attempt a reasonable compromise. I will first discuss some recent first amendment developments in the law of broadcasting that are of special interest and will then try to relate those legal “passages” to a single currently lively issue—the right of access to the broadcast media, that is, the right of members of the public to express themselves over the air (or through cable) free of control of content by the licensee. It is axiomatic that broadcasting occupies a special place in first amendment theory. The Supreme Court and society generally have permitted a degree of government control over broadcast content that would be unthinkable if applied to other media. The government's role in broadcast regulation has historically been justified by reference to the scarcity of the electromagnetic spectrum, the attendant need to keep competing users from drowning each other out, and the desire to ensure that those users blessed with government licenses operate in the public interest. A major goal of government regulation has been diversity of programming—the notion that the airwaves should not be the exclusive personal podiums of the licensees but should be used to bring a wide range of ideas and experiences from many sources to the American people. Recent decisions have endorsed growing government control, but this has come, ironically and regrettably, at the expense of diversity in broadcasting. Proponents of greater public access to the airwaves cannot be comforted by these shifts in the nature of and the justification for broadcasting regulation.
Source Publication
Network Television and the Public Interest: A Preliminary Inquiry
Source Editors/Authors
Michael Botein, David M. Rice
Publication Date
1980
Recommended Citation
Chase, Oscar G., "Broadcast Regulation and the First Amendment" (1980). Faculty Chapters. 1136.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/1136
