Attorneys representing the FCC urged an appeals court...
Attorneys representing the FCC urged an appeals court to deny a petition for judicial review of a decision that upholds the agency’s ban on political ads on public stations. This case is a “poor vehicle for the wholesale re-examination of…
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the constitutionality of broadcast regulation that petitioner seeks,” the attorneys said in an opposition brief to the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals (http://bit.ly/ScL15R). During a rehearing of the case brought by Minority Television Project, 11 judges upheld the ban overturning the original decision that struck it down (CD Dec 3 p4). Petitioner’s contention is that the First Amendment “gives it the right to retain the valuable benefit it has received without payment ... and then disregard the terms on which that license was granted,” the brief said. The absence of advertising has been the hallmark of public broadcasting from its inception, it said. As the appeals court explained, the ad restrictions are neither over- nor under-inclusive, it said. “Instead, they ‘are specifically targeted at the real threat -- the influence of paid advertising dollars.'” The restrictions on ads are an important piece of a comprehensive plan “to promote programming that is differentiated from the typical commercial fare,” it said.