CBS, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission: Recognition of Federal Candidates' Right of Access to Broadcasting Facilities
![handle is hein.journals/utahlr1982 and id is 643 raw text is: CBS, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission:
Recognition of Federal Candidates' Right of Access
to Broadcasting Facilities
Since the early days of commercial radio and television broad-
casting, the federal government has extensively regulated the use
of the airways.1 The cornerstone of that regulatory system, the
Communications Act of 19342 (the 1934 Act), attempted to balance
the constitutional guarantee of freedom of the press with regula-
tion of the public airwaves to further the public interest.3 Provid-
ing political programming has long been considered an essential
public interest and subject to regulation. Thus, the Campaign
Communications Reform Act of 19715 (1971 Act) amended the
1934 Act to provide for the revocation of the license of a broad-
caster who willfully or repeatedly denies a candidate for federal
elective office reasonable access to its broadcast facilities.' In CBS,
Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission, the United States
Supreme Court construed that amendment as granting federal can-
1. Concern that signal interference, caused by overuse of limited frequencies, would
limit the development of radio and that control of the medium might become concentrated
in a few hands prompted the enactment of the Radio Act of 1927, ch. 169, 44 Stat. 1162
(1927) (repealed 1934). 67 CONG. REC. 5479-80 (1926) (remarks of Representative White of
Maine); accord FCC v. Pottsville Broadcasting Co., 309 U.S. 134, 137 (1940).
2. Ch. 652, 48 Stat. 1064 (1934) (codified as amended at 47 U.S.C. §§ 151-609 (1976 &
Supp. IV 1980)). The Act retained the regulatory scheme of the 1927 Act, which was in-
tended to make available, so far as possible, to all the people of the United States a rapid,
efficient, Nationwide, and world-wide wire and radio communication service. 47 U.S.C. §
151 (1976).
3. See Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC, 395 U.S. 367, 375-79, 386-95 (1969) (holding
constitutional an FCC requirement that persons subject to personal attack in a program
aired by a broadcaster be given access to broadcaster's facilities to reply to the attack);
Bollinger, Freedom of the Press and Public Access: Toward a Theory of Partial Regulation
of the Mass Media, 75 MICH. L. REv. 1 (1976).
4. Network Programming Inquiry, 25 Fed. Reg. 7291, 7295 (1960).
5. Pub. L. No. 92-225, tit. I, 86 Stat. 3, 3-8 (1972). The Act's expenditure limitations
were repealed by the Federal Election Campaign Act Amendments of 1974, Pub. L. No. 93-
443, § 205(b), 88 Stat. 1263, 1278 (1974). Prior to repeal, those provisions were held to vio-
late the first amendment free speech guarantee. ACLU v. Jennings, 366 F. Supp. 1041 (D.C.
Cir. 1973), vacated as moot sub nom., Staats v. ACLU, 422 U.S. 1030 (1975).
6. Section 312 provides that [t]he Commission may revoke any station license...
for willful or repeated failure to allow reasonable access to or to permit purchase of reasona-
ble amounts of time for the use of a broadcasting station by a legally qualified candidate for
Federal elective office on behalf of his candidacy. 47 U.S.C. § 312(a)(7) (1976).
7. 453 U.S. 367 (1981).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/utahlr1982&div=40&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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CBS, Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission: Recognition of Federal Candidates' Right of Access to Broadcasting Facilities
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