Event Title
Private Interests in "Public Interest" Programming: An Economic Assessment of Broadcaster Incentives
Location
Duke Law School
Start Date
9-2-1996 1:00 PM
End Date
9-2-1996 2:15 PM
Description
The reversal of the FCC's laissez-faire approach to broadcasters could be caricatured as a resurgence of progressive paternalism, in which government regulators attempt to influence people to watch more programs approved by the FCC. The notion of an active FCC specifying additional limits on programming may also suggest a return to command and control regulation, at a time when Congress is deregulating many other communications channels. This Comment argues, however, that attempts to influence the amount of educational programming for children, public affairs coverage, and indecent or violent programming are all aimed at remedying, rather than creating, market failures.
Related Paper
James T. Hamilton, Private Interests in “Public Interest” Programming: An Economic Assessment of Broadcaster Incentives, 45 Duke Law Journal 1177-1192 (1996)
Available at: http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/dlj/vol45/iss6/3Private Interests in "Public Interest" Programming: An Economic Assessment of Broadcaster Incentives
Duke Law School
The reversal of the FCC's laissez-faire approach to broadcasters could be caricatured as a resurgence of progressive paternalism, in which government regulators attempt to influence people to watch more programs approved by the FCC. The notion of an active FCC specifying additional limits on programming may also suggest a return to command and control regulation, at a time when Congress is deregulating many other communications channels. This Comment argues, however, that attempts to influence the amount of educational programming for children, public affairs coverage, and indecent or violent programming are all aimed at remedying, rather than creating, market failures.
Comments
This event was not recorded.