A reader writes: “Is it in the public interest for a television station owner to use forged documents to try to remove a sitting politician? . . . Personally, I’d think that if CBS knew or should have known that the documents were forged, license forfeiture for the CBS owned and operated stations would be appropriate.”
Yow! Do we really want political bodies, appointed by politicians, stripping broadcasters of licenses because the broadcasters were supposedly negligent (the “should have known” test is a negligence test) in distributing supposedly false documents? If you’re a Republican, let me put it this way: Would you have wanted, in the late 1990s, to have an FCC dominated by Clinton appointees stripping TV stations of licenses because they supposedly negligently spread inaccurate information about Clinton?
I think the answer has to be no: This would deter even serious, responsible broadcast news reporting, because broadcasters would be afraid that the FCC would strip their licenses if the FCC concluded that the allegations were false and ngeligent.
That’s the logic of New York Times v. Sullivan as to libel lawsuits, which are much more historically established than any such FCC power, and are less likely (though by no means entirely unlikely) to be politically abused. It should certainly apply to license revocations, too. I’m pretty sure that the FCC wouldn’t act this way (it may have the statutory authority, under the vague “public interest” standard, but I’m pretty certain they don’t exercise this authority this way), and shouldn’t act this way.
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