Dear Editor:
Had the article “Cato: Public Interest Obligations Are Outdated” in the July issue of Radio World been published in the April 1 edition instead, I would have assumed it was a sly joke, because the purports of it are absurd on their faces.
First, the quoted material defames the venerable FCC, stating: “The FCC can site decades-old laws and precedents and pretend (emphasis mine) that its public interest standard is necessary because broadcast spectrum is technically scarce,” David Inserra wrote. “But that argument ignores the radically abundant media options available to modern consumers.”
There’s nothing inherently wrong with “decades-old laws and precedents,” for example the U.S. Constitution and a plethora of other such legacies. There’s no pretense here, but genuine prima facie public good.
Then he torpedoes his own argument by pointing to the obvious fact that there is no limitation on “other media options” save for outlets requiring the scarce RF spectrum.
Scarce public resources require careful rationing for codified access and overall fairness. Since the 1934 Act and beyond, the Federal Radio Commission and subsequently the FCC have done a remarkable job of rationing spectrum rationing, setting technical standards, etc. A rare example of Good Government at Work.
Then Inserra states “The FCC does not need to micromanage spectrum, and it certainly does not need to use spectrum licenses as a lever for editorial control.”
This is akin to the “Defund the Police” cry that favors counseling drug-besotted violent criminals with kindness and warm cocoa to get them to turn from their wicked ways.
Isn’t broadcast piracy enough of a cancer in the body politic to give ample warning of what would happen sans FCC? We’d return to the legendary bedlam of the King Spark days before the 1934 Act calmed things down and provided an orderly means of spectrum licensure and right to occupy a space on the dial.
He continues: “With the FCC’s control over licenses removed, broadcast speech would be freer from government manipulation and jawboning.”
Really? Radio and TV OTA broadcasting are bastions of news and information, and in particular, bulletins of safety and rescues in event of wildfires, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, etc. Serving the public with this extremely timely information underpins the justification for licensure. Email, podcasts and printed periodicals aren’t spot up-to-the-minute sources of life-saving information for wide public consumption.
PICN — Public Interest and Necessity — is the foundation justification for rationing scarce broadcast RF spectrum. Without profanity and indecency prohibitions, the airwaves would turn into Playboy Magazine sewers of the Air.
I got the joke, Inserra. Now go back to your Fantasy Neverland of defanging the FCC and let wiser heads continue to prevail as they have for many decades.
