Document Type

Working Paper

Publication Date

12-12-2000

SSRN Discipline

Legal Scholarship Network; Law School Research Papers - Legal Studies; Antitrust & Regulated Industries eJournals; LSN Subject Matter eJournals; Law School Research Papers - Public Law & Legal Theory

Abstract

In their article Professor Krotoszynski and Mr Blaiklock assess diversity and broadcast media regulation in contemporary America First the authors consider the Federal Communications Commissions regulatory attempts to promote diversity in television and radio broadcasting The authors discuss the Commissions difficulties in defining and characterizing diversity and further note some of the inconsistencies inherent in the Commissions dual emphasis on competition and diversity in broadcast programming also mentioning the threat to democratic values posed by unduly concentrated media ownership Next the authors chronicle the burgeoning judicial hostility to raceconscious governmental policies and practices They discuss the related shift from intermediate scrutiny to strict scrutiny in equal protection jurisprudence and the Commissions frantic efforts to provide justifications for its increasingly endangered racebased diversity regulations The authors also examine the need for diversity in programming both arguing that structural diversity among broadcast media outlets presents the best means of securing ideologically diverse programming and responding to potential objections to structural regulations aimed at securing such diversity Finally the authors elaborate on how such structural media regulations do not raise serious equal protection problems and conclude with a reminder that a healthy democracy depends upon a myriad of voices

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