'White Spaces Debate Shows Broadcasters At Their Worst

[Commentary] For most industries, companies have to buy the raw materials from which their finished products are made. One industry has been continually exempt from that law of commerce - broadcasting. For almost 90 years, radio and then TV broadcasters have used the public's airwaves (spectrum) without charge. At one point, they had some obligations to serve the public interest, but most of those were done away with in the great deregulation wave of the 1980s. It's time for a new policy for broadcasters because their world is changing, like it or not. The TV networks are starting to offer full episodes of shows online, so that viewers don't have to watch the television set or tune in to the stations the networks or their affiliates own. Public Knowledge has proposed some approaches, ranging from abandoning the spectrum scarcity argument on which broadcast regulation is based, to forcing broadcasters to choose between paying for spectrum and losing their special protections, or keeping protections like must-carry and give up spectrum. The basic question: Should an industry so dedicated to stopping progress deserve any protections without any accompanying responsibilities? The basic answer: Everything should be on the table for discussion.