Who Owns the Airwaves?

I heard some NAB wonk complain this morning that FCC rules -- rules which are being relaxed right now, just when they should be most strictly enforced -- don't allow radio and television stations to endorse political candidates.

"Newspapers are allowed to endorse candidates, and in fact the public would complain vociferously if they were not allowed to", he said (I'm paraphrasing, of course).

Let me explain, jerk.

Newspapers and magazines belong to their respective publishers. Anything they want to say is on their dime, because they pay for the paper, the ink, the reportage, and the distribution.

Radio and television, however, use a precious resource that belongs to all of us: the airwaves. There is only so much æther to go around, and the broadcasters lease the spectrum from us, the American people. Because they are using a scarce resource, they have to abide by the terms of the lease; those terms are administered by the FCC. One of those terms is that you can't use our national resources to support one political candidate without giving others equal time.

See, it's quite simple.