Ernest Hollings, a South Carolina Senator Who Pushed for Broadcast Cable Regulation, Dies at 97

Ernest F. Hollings, known as Fritz, a silver-haired South Carolina Democrat who served 38 years in the US Senate, died on April 6 at age 97. Hollings, who retired in 2004, had successfully pushed for broadcast cable regulation. When he retired, on the list of accomplishments his office wanted everyone to remember was that he had "Reined in the cable TV monopolies, as the driving force in the early 1990s for the Cable and Consumer Protections Act."  Hollings had argued that "persistent service and rate abuses by TV cable companies around the country " prompted him to "to lead the charge," as his office put it at the time, "in giving the Federal Communications Commission authority to regulate basic cable TV rates and set minimum service standards." Hollings was also a driving force behind the Children's TV Act (along with Sen Ed Markey (D-MA) that required broadcasters to air minimum amounts of educational and informational children's programming. Former FCC Chairman Michael Copps tweeted on April 6, "Sen. Fritz Hollings, my boss for 15 years and friend of almost 50, passed away this morning.  He was South Carolina’s statesman of the 20th century.  The first and last of “New South” Democrats, he revered public service and led his people through education, honesty, and candor."