The FCC's "Stopwatch" Proposal to Evaluate Station Program Content

Responding to the Federal Communications Commission's Notice of Inquiry (NOI) regarding "Standardizing Program Reporting Requirements for Broadcast Licensees," the 46 State Broadcasters Associations (represented by the authors’ firm), three other State Broadcasters Associations, the National Association of Broadcasters, and a coalition of network television station owners, among others, filed comments alerting the FCC that its proposals to adopt new and detailed program reporting requirements raise serious questions about the Commission's authority to do so under the First Amendment. The 46 State Associations noted that "substitut[ing] a chiefly quantity of programming measure for public service performance, would, in the State Associations' view, inappropriately, (i) elevate form (quantity of minutes) over substance (treatment of specific issues), (ii) place other undue burdens on stations, and (iii) intertwine the government for years to come in the journalistic news judgments of television broadcast stations throughout the country."