Stuart Benjamin: FCC Isn't Forcing Broadcasters Off Spectrum

Stuart Benjamin, the Federal Communications Commission's distinguished scholar in residence, is the guest on this week's episode of The Communicators on C-SPAN.

His views have come under fire from broadcasters over past writings, particularly "Roasting the Pig to Burn Down the House," in which he suggested broadcast spectrum would be better off in other hands, and that regulating them out of business might be one way to do it. But while he says his job includes advising the chairman on what proceedings to launch, a larger part of his job is to raise both sides of issues and combat a kind of "groupthink" in Washington with the "clash of ideas" he says FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski wanted when he reached out to him.

Benjamin said that what he "really meant" in his article was that "we are best off moving toward spectrum flexibility so that people can determine what services they want, and from the bottom up rather than the top down."