Cato: Broadcasters’ Public Interest Obligations Are Outdated and Need to Be Revised

Cato: Broadcasters’ Public Interest Obligations Are Outdated and Need to Be Revised

'The FCC does not need to micromanage spectrum, and it certainly does not need to use spectrum licenses as a lever for editorial control'

‘FCC Public Interest Power Is a Constitutional Relic’

Days after the FCC’s Media Bureau warned broadcasters that no licensee holds a right to the public spectrum, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute is arguing that the regulatory framework underlying that notice is technically obsolete and constitutionally indefensible. Cato Institute Free Expression and Technology Fellow David Inserra takes direct aim at the FCC’s public interest doctrine and the scarcity rationale the agency has relied on sinc…

Inserra: FCC Public Interest Power Is a Constitutional Relic

Ten days after the FCC Media Bureau warned broadcasters that no licensee holds a right to the public spectrum, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute is arguing that the regulatory framework underlying that notice is technically obsolete and constitutionally indefensible.