The FCC is staying out of our newsrooms, thanks to Commissioners Pai and Genachowski

[Commentary] You don’t need a PhD in economics to question whether the Federal Communications Commission is using a seemingly unrelated report obligation to get at their real focus -- speech.

And voluntary?! The FCC holds the broadcasters’ licenses -- they are out of business without them. The broadcasters have as much volition to say no as a husband does when his wife says, “Honey, would you mind taking out the garbage?” This newsroom survey conjures memories of when the FCC examined not “critical information” but “views of public importance.” The language comes from the Fairness Doctrine -- an FCC regulation from 1949. The doctrine had a process similar to that proposed in the newsroom survey -- under the Fairness Doctrine a newsroom needed to decide when something was of “public importance” and then present opposing views (whatever those were determined to be). If the newsroom could not so determine what fit in the public importance category, the FCC was happy to do it for them -- only the broadcasters’ licenses hung in the balance.

[Boliek is associate professor of law at Pepperdine University School of Law]