III.                  Rules Governing the Media

1.       Interestingly, the newspapers, which have the least competition, are the most loosely governed, while radio and TV, which are the most competitive, must have gov’t licenses and follow a lot of gov’t rules.

2.       The 1^st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution has given the press virtually complete freedom, with the only restrictions being very narrowly defined.

                                                               i.      After publishing something, a paper CAN be sued if it is libelous or obscene or if it incites someone to commit an illegal act, but to collect damages, it must be proven that the printed material was false AND was printed with intended, malicious intent.

                                                             ii.      It’s illegal to use printed words to advocate the violent overthrow of the gov’t if one invites others to join, but that rule has been applied to newspapers rarely.

3.       Reporters believe that they should have the right to hold the confidentiality of their sources, but in many cases, reporters were jailed for not revealing their sources because the case required the identity of such sources as evidence so that the trial would be fair and just.

4.       TV stations must renew their licenses ever five years while radio stations do so every seven years, and until recently, the FCC required all broadcasters to meticulously detail information about their programming and how their planned to serve “community needs,” thus receiving valuable information that could be manipulated so that the FCC would influence what was put on the air.

5.       Radio and TV stations are still regulated by a few rules that are still stringently enforced:

                                                               i.      The Equal Time Rule states that if a station sells time to one candidate, it must be willing to sell equal time to all other candidates.

                                                             ii.      The Right-of-Reply Rule states that if a person is attacked on a broadcast program (not regular news), he can reply on that same program.

                                                            iii.      The Political Editorializing Rule states that if a broadcaster endorses a candidate, the opposing candidate(s) has/have the right to reply.

                                                            iv.      For many years, there WAS the fairness doctrine, in which broadcasters had to discuss both sides of a controversial issue, but in 1987, the FCC abolished that rule because if felt that it inhibited the free discussion of issues; many broadcasters still follow it voluntarily.

6.       At one time, the equal time rule meant that TV and radio could not broadcast a presidential debate between Democrats and Republicans without inviting ALL the other groups as well, so they simply it a “news event” and had the League of Women Voters sponsor it, but today, there’s no problem.

7.       A market is an area easily reached by a television signal, and about 200 of these exist in the U.S., but some are larger than others, and some are cheaper (# of people reached per dollar spent) than others, so some politicians use TV more than others (senators more than house reps).