REGULATING POLITICAL BROADCASTING

Heather Hendershot, What's Fair on the Air?: Cold War Right-Wing Broadcasting and the Public Interest (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 2011) ("Many of the extremist groups did not include broadcasting in their activities, but the ones that did were those with the greatest longevity, and the largest operating budgets. What's Fair on the Air? charts the rise and fall of four of the era's most prominent extremist broadcasters: H. L. Hunt, Dan Smoot, Carl McIntire, and Billy James Hargis. All thrived on radio, with McIntire finding the largest audience of all the extremists, and Smoot being the only one also to find a significant home on television. These four maintained their organizations and programs longer than most. . . It's impossible to clearly trace the circulation of all the record albums, pamphlets, books, 16mm films, and reel-to-reel tapes produced by ultraconservatives throughout the 1960s, as the distribution of such media was so completely decentralized. But there is a clear link between the amount of media produced, the amount of money that came in, and the longevity of each group. One might conjecture that Hunt, Smoot, McIntire, and Hargis were the most powerful of the right-wing broadcasters, but having a considerable cash flow did not necessarily translate directly into political power. These four were, at least, the most heard of the many competing cold war ultraconservatives. According to the Communications Act of 1934, broadcasters were required 'to serve the public interest, convenience, and necessity.' . . ." Id. at 11-12. "What's Fair on the Air? presents an analysis not only of the cold war extremists rejected by what would become the mainstream conservative movement but also, specifically, of the FCC's battle against extremist broadcasters. . . . ." "That the public interest might have a strong political valence (beyond the obviously politically charged implications of choosing who exactly get a license) became clearer to policy maker later, particularly in the years leading up to World War II. In 1939, the national Association of Broadcasters had, Alan Brinkley notes, 'adopted new codes sharply limiting the sale of radio time to 'spokesmen of controversial public issues'.' " Id.at at 16.).