Posted March 7, 2008 by Meredith McGehee

Public Interest Obligations and the 2008 Elections

The current presidential race has struck a chord with the American public and driven exceptional turnout at the polls.  Voter outrage had a similar effect in the 2006 congressional elections. But both election cycles demonstrate that when given clear choices and competitive elections, the American voter will enthusiastically engage in our democratic process.  An engaged broadcaster community meeting its obligations to the public interest can drive this trend, but history has shown this will not happen on a voluntarily basis, at least not on a broad scale.  Left to their own devices most broadcasters have proven more than willing to do the bare minimum demanded of them in terms of public service in exchange for their free use of the public airwaves.  

The Public Interest Public Airwaves (PIPA) Coalition continues to call on the Federal Communications Commission to support meaningful public interest requirements so that the transition for analog to digital will benefit not only broadcasters, but also national and local communities.

The Commission is on the verge of taking an important first step on this issue after nearly eight years.  On January 24, 2008, the Federal Communications Commission released Report and Order No. 07-205 responding to the need for enhanced disclosure requirements of public interest programming.  In particular, the Commission adopted a “Standardized Television Disclosure Form” which is modeled on the PIPA Coalition’s proposal and contains 17 of its 19 recommendations.

There is more to be done as the Commissions own initial findings point out.  To anyone who has turned on a television in recent years it would come as no surprise that the Commission found political programming on the decline.  In response to the request for comment the PIPA Coalition continues to stress the importance of local political programming in communities and will urge the Commission to reconsider strengthening disclosure requirements of political programming.  Further the PIPA Coalition will push better license renewal guidelines and a set of quantifiable and enforceable public interest obligations for broadcasters.

The Public Interest Public Airwaves Coalition believes that it is essential to our democratic process that the public airwaves serve as an open forum by promoting civic and electoral discourse.  The PIPA Coalition hopes for new and enforceable rules governing public interest obligations to ensure an engaged and informed citizenry in time for the 2008 elections.

The public deserves much in return for their airwaves, but broadcasters have been asked for so little for so long in exchange for the free use of that spectrum that a sense of entitlement has descended.  The payment is long overdue and we strongly urge the FCC to follow through on this late but strong start to make broadcasters hold up their end of the deal.