The Scarcity Rationale for Regulating Traditional Broadcasting: An Idea Whose Time Has Passed by John Berresford

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: John Berresford <John.Berresford () fcc gov>
Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 16:21:29 -0500
To: <dave () farber net
Subject: Another Article by John Berresford

Dear Friend/Colleague/Former Student:

I thought you might be interested in yet another paper written by me.

It¹s titled ³The Scarcity Rationale for Regulating Traditional Broadcasting:
An Idea Whose Time Has Passed² and is an FCC Media Bureau Staff Research
Paper.  

 <<March 17 2005 - as posted.pdf>>

You can also see it at http://www.fcc.gov/mb/scarcityrat.pdf
<http://www.fcc.gov/mb/scarcityrat.pdf> .

U.S. Supreme Court decisions from the 1960s and before base government
regulation of over-the-air TV and radio on the notion that there are few
channels, fewer than there are people who want to speak.  This, the
decisions said, justifies giving traditional broadcasters fewer First
Amendment rights than newspapers, movies, books, cable TV, etc.

In a 1984 decision, the Supreme Court invited the FCC and Congress to say
that The Scarcity Rationale no longer made sense.  My paper attempts to make
that showing.  The paper is not a statement of position by the FCC or the
Media Bureau, but it is a statement on the FCC¹s web page.

The paper notes that The Scarcity Rationale misunderstands physics,
economics, efficient resource allocation, recent field measurements, and
modern technology.  It does not fit today¹s marketplace.  Americans today
have all the channels, voices, and viewpoints of UHF TV and FM radio, cable
TV, satellite-based TV and radio, Digital TV and radio, and the shared media
of the Internet (with millions of bloggers and billons of web pages) and
WiFi and WiMax.  On  these media, voices and viewpoints that were never
heard in the heyday of The Big Three Networks are heard, and many have found
huge audiences rivaling the old networks¹.

I can promise you that this will be the last Beresford publication for a
while. 

John Berresford 







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Attachment: March 17 2005 - as posted.pdf
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