Event Title
The Broadcast Licensee as Fiduciary: Toward the Enforcement of Discretion
Location
Duke Law School
Start Date
2-2-1973 11:15 AM
End Date
2-2-1973 12:15 PM
Description
As the justification for the fairness doctrine, the FCC pointed out that mass communications should serve to further the "development of an informed public opinion through the public dissemination of news and ideas concerning the vital public issues of the day." But for the fairness doctrine to succeed, the FCC, a government agency, must involve itself to some extent in the evaluation of the content of broadcast programming. Thus, on the one hand, to the extent that control of the mass communications media is in private hands, the general public's right to free speech is severely limited. On the other hand, any attempt to promote free speech by regulation of content by the FCC raises the issue of government infringement upon free speech.
Related Paper
Jonathan Mallamud, The Broadcast Licensee as Fiduciary: Toward the Enforcement of Discretion, 1973 Duke Law Journal 89-133 (1973)
Available at: http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/dlj/vol22/iss1/3The Broadcast Licensee as Fiduciary: Toward the Enforcement of Discretion
Duke Law School
As the justification for the fairness doctrine, the FCC pointed out that mass communications should serve to further the "development of an informed public opinion through the public dissemination of news and ideas concerning the vital public issues of the day." But for the fairness doctrine to succeed, the FCC, a government agency, must involve itself to some extent in the evaluation of the content of broadcast programming. Thus, on the one hand, to the extent that control of the mass communications media is in private hands, the general public's right to free speech is severely limited. On the other hand, any attempt to promote free speech by regulation of content by the FCC raises the issue of government infringement upon free speech.
Comments
This event was not recorded.