Communications class
So far in the communications law class I'm teaching this term, we've read materials about indecency regulation, the digital television transition, and media concentration.
For today's class on media concentration, one of the students posted the following comment:
Okay, I give up. By now, FCC regulatory authority is such a shell game I can't keep it straight.
All of these stories have been pretty thick. Indecency regulation is premised on protecting kids (not scarcity), but doesn't cover cable and appears to extend to fleeting expletives that can be heard on any street corner. The DTV transition is more like a soap opera than a policy initiative. And the media concentration story has the FCC stuck between the D.C. Circuit and Congress and three million angry letter-writers. Luckily for us, the satellite radio industry has decided to merge in careful synchronization with our syllabus.
It's a good time to be studying this material. It's dramatic stuff. Just wait until we get to the E911, CALEA, and net neutrality stories. Perhaps we should put on a class play.