FCC Charts a Wise Course for Media's Future

[Commentary] Seventeen months ago the Federal Communications Commission teed up what until June 9 was known as the “Future of Media” project. For all practical purposes the project’s report, now called “The Information Needs of Communities,” is likely to be forgotten in half that time.

On the face of it this sounds like a criticism. Far from it. For its thoroughness and level-headed analysis, and especially for its acknowledgment of the constitutional limits on governmental involvement in the media, this report, and its principal personnel — most notably the man brought in to oversee the effort, Steven Waldman — are owed a debt of gratitude. The report effectively dismisses the worst aspects of the media reformers’ governmental agenda. Missing or explicitly rejected, for instance, are increased funding of public broadcasting, a “Geek Corps” for local democracy (patterned after AmeriCorps), federal tax credits for investigative journalism, or calls for a halt to media consolidation. In fact, one of the few “action elements” in the report was a call for less government regulation.