Fairness Doctrine
This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: April 14, 2025 to April 18, 2025
- The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a decision that raises significant questions about the FCC’s ability
This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: March 17, 2025 to March 21, 2025
- FCC Commissioner Starks announced that he informed President Trump and Senator Minority Leader Schumer (D-NY) that he will resign his
This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: February 17, 2025 to February 21, 2025
- In an effort to exert more control over independent federal agencies, including the FCC, President Trump signed an Executive Order
This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: January 20, 2025 to January 24, 2025
- President Trump issued several Executive Orders that could affect FCC decision-making, including an Executive Order suspending government diversity, equity, and
This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: January 13, 2025 to January 17, 2025
- The FCC’s Enforcement and Media Bureaus, under a new Docket opened by the Commission called “Preserving the First Amendment,” dismissed
This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: December 16, 2024 to December 20, 2024
- Congress failed to include the AM For Every Vehicle Act in their year-end omnibus spending legislation, meaning that the bill
This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: September 10, 2022 to September 16, 2022
Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the past week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.
- The FCC released additional public notices in connection with the upcoming September 28 deadline for submission of annual regulatory fees.
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This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: May 8, 2021 to May 14, 2021
Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the last week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.
- In a speech to the Media Institute, FCC Commissioner Starks spoke of the importance of diversity in media ownership and
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The First Amendment’s Role in Broadcast and Online Regulation
Everyone knows that a fundamental principle of American democracy is the First Amendment – guaranteeing many freedoms to US citizens including freedom of the press and freedom of speech. It is one of those concepts that underlies our society, but is often mentioned only in passing, and rarely considered in practice. Few people – even broadcasters and other media companies – have cause to think about First Amendment principles in their day-to-day operations. The concepts embodied by the First Amendment are almost a given – except when they are not.
In our politically polarized society, there are more and more arguments made about regulation of speech in various contexts – often made without significant consideration of those First Amendment principles. On the broadcast side, we have seen Commissioner Carr react to two cases where the FCC has seemingly been called on to regulate the speech (or anticipated speech) of broadcasters. One case involved a call to deny the sale of a broadcast station allegedly based on a perceived change in the political orientation of its programming from liberal to conservative (see the Carr statement here), and another calling for the FCC to investigate a TV station in Baltimore for allegedly being too focused on investigations into a local government official (see the Carr statement here and an NAB statement also weighing in on the controversy here). While there may well be issues in each case that go beyond the question of the proposed speech of the broadcasters involved, the issue of whether the FCC can get involved in the regulation of political positions taken by broadcasters is one that is addressed both by the Communications Act and past FCC precedent.
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