Law Commons^™

A Tale Of Three Cities: “Diverse And Antagonistic” Information In Situations Of Local Newspaper/Broadcast Cross-Ownership, David Pritchard

Federal Communications Law Journal

For more than half a century, a desire for "diverse and antagonistic sources" has been a fundamental principle of communications policy in the United States. Many question, however, whether current FCC policies intended to foster diversity of news and views in the content of the mass media actually do so. Nowhere is this issue raised more starkly than with respect to the Commission's controversial 1975 rule that prohibited the common ownership of a daily newspaper and a broadcast station in the same market. This Article examines the results of a study of diversity of information and viewpoints about the 2000 …

The Public Interest Standard: Is It Too Indeterminate To Be Constitutional?, Randolph J. May

Federal Communications Law Journal

This Article argues that the congressional delegation of public interest authority to the FCC likely violates the nondelegation doctrine that inheres in the constitutional separation of powers scheme and that, even if the courts do not hold the public interest delegation unconstitutional, Congress should revise the Communications Act to set forth more specific guidance for the FCC. In today’s environment of “convergence,” in which competition is flourishing across communications sectors, Congress should not shirk its responsibility to establish fundamental policy for an industry that contributes so much to the overall health of our economy. This Article argues that Congress should …

The Fcc’S Main Studio Rule: Achieving Little For Localism At A Great Cost To Broadcasters, David M. Silverman, David N. Tobenkin

Federal Communications Law Journal

Localism, the communications law policy that requires spectrum licensees to serve the needs of local communities, represents a bedrock concept in the Communications Act and the Federal Communications Commission’s jurisprudence. The Commission’s sixty-year-old main studio rule provides a vivid example of this principle. Broadcasters often find compliance with this rule difficult and an exercise in form over substance, raising legitimate questions about the continued need and rationale for the rule. This Article examines the rule’s evolution and its current problematic state, and analyzes whether its modification or elimination would better conserve the resources of both broadcasters and the Commission, without …

Which Public, Whose Interest? The Fcc, The Public Interest, And Low-Power Radio

San Diego Law Review

Faced with legal challenges8 and, in 1998 alone, over 13,000 inquiries from people and groups interested in starting low-power stations, the government relented, and in January 2000, completed a process creating a new low-power FM (LPFM) service.9 In the space of two years, the FCC had gone from raiding and shutting down microradio stations to inviting applications for low-power broadcast licenses. Such a dramatic shift in policy could only come about through a reinterpretation of the public interest standard. Part III of this Comment continues by analyzing

the concept of the public interest that underlies the new LPFM service and …

Internet Governance, Standard Setting, And Self-Regulation, Philip J. Weiser

Publications

No abstract provided.

Federal Common Law, Cooperative Federalism, And The Enforcement Of The Telecom Act, Philip J. Weiser

Publications

Congress increasingly has enacted cooperative federalism programs to achieve complex regulatory policy objectives. Such programs combine the authority of federal regulators, state regulators, and federal courts in creative and often pathmarking ways, but the failure of these actors to appreciate fully their respective roles threatens to undermine cooperative federalism's effectiveness. In this Article, Professor Philip Weiser develops a coherent vision of how federal courts should enforce cooperative federalism regulatory programs. In particular, he relates the rise and purpose of cooperative federalism to the federal courts' increased reluctance to make federal common law under the Erie doctrine and their greater deference …