Hear an [Expletive], There an [Expletive], But[t] . . . The Federal Communications Commission Will Not Let You Say an [Expletive]
Courtney Livingston Quale, 45 Willamette L. Rev. 207 (2008)
(An excerpt is below. To view the full text, please use Westlaw, Lexis, a law library or alternative source.)
To address the question of whether the Federal Communications Commission has overstepped its regulatory authority, Part II of this article will present a quick history of broadcast media, starting with the first radio signals, continuing on to the creation of the television and television networks, and concluding with the creation of the Federal Communications Commission. With this historical background in place, the reader should be able to more easily understand the climate in which the Commission was established, the Commission’s purpose, and the source of the Commission’s power to regulate the electromagnetic spectrum and broadcast media. In Part III, the article will examine the Commission by looking at its regulatory authority, regulations, and regulatory enforcement practices. Then, in Part IV, the article will attempt to establish whether the Federal Communications Commission has overstepped its regulatory authority and, in laymen’s terms, determine whether the Federal Communications Commission continues to make sense.
