The meaning of “the public interest” in communications policy—part II: Its implementation in early broadcast law and regulation

Abstract

For more than a half‐century, as the cornerstone of federal broadcasting and telecommunications policy, the public interest standard has always been subject to some debate. Questions have regularly been raised about its meaning and the extent of the authority it implies for regulation, particularly in the deregulatory environment of the 1980s and 1990s. Part I of this study demonstrated how a deep reading of the pre‐broadcasting state and federal regulatory history reveals that interpretations of the public interest standard that have emphasized broad, diverse, public service programming have entailed a misunderstanding of its real, underlying meaning. This part of the study shows how another definition—i.e., that the public would be best served by protecting economic viability and technological advancement for private industry broadcasters—developed as the predominant doctrine before adoption of the Radio Act of 1927 and Communications Act of 1934, and how that theme came to be the applied interpretation of the public interest during the first two decades of broadcast regulation.

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