Since publishing a piece in which I argue that the FCC’s equal-time rule for political candidates should be abolished, I have received several responses that rely on the same argument, which I find ridiculous: Network television uses public airwaves with the federal government’s permission, the reasoning goes, so the federal government should be able to regulate the content that stations broadcast — even to the point of regulating political speech, whose total protection was the First Amendment’s primary purpose. It’s a real “you didn’t build that!” sort of rationale.
Why stop at broadcast television? Countless print publications, National Review among them, are delivered through the U.S. Postal Service, partially at taxpayers’ expense. Perhaps the government should demand that every publication promote different political candidates equally.
Comments