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REPRINTED FROM: Harper's magazine The Easy Chair by Nicholas Johnson -WHAT YOU CAN DO TO IMPROVE TV Critics of radio and television are gen- principle is not understood, which is most ?" The answer is that it can't,--or at erally agreed that the Federal Com- of the time, the most legitimate public least that it won't—until you tell it just munications Commission is a far from protests from thousands of citizens fall what you want it to do. — effective guardian of the "public inter- like drops of rain upon lonely and un- Fortunately, however, there was one est" in broadcasting. It has failed—ac- charted seas, But by understanding and young man who understood the "law of cording to one widely accepted view— using the right strategy the meekest effective reform" and attacked the prob- because it has, in effect, been "captured" among us can roll back the ocean. lem accordingly. He was John Banzhaf, by the industry it was established to Here is an illustration of both points. a New York lawyer in his twenties. Mr, regulate. How did this come about? And The health hazards of cigarette smok- Banzhaf, too, wrote to "Washington." what can you do about it? Many people ing and, especially, the impact of TV But his "letter" was different. He called have written me letters asking essen- cigarette commercials on teen-agers, it a "Fairness Complaint." In it he speci- tially that question. This article is an have been matters of wide concern for a fied an offender : the CBS-owned flag- attempt at an answer. good many years. Yet despite ominous ship station in New York City, WCBS. So far ae I know, the problem is not government reports, and despite the He said the station ran great quantities that sinister forces staged a coup one warning notice now printed on cigarette of cigarette commercials. He then re- dark night in the FCC's headquarters at packages, the commercials continued, ferred to a legal principle, the "fairness 20th and M Street in Washington. The cigarette consumption increased, and doctrine," which has evolved over the problem is much more subtle, and com- more and more teen-agers picked up a years from the Communications Act, mon to virtually all regulatory agencies. habit which TV told them was the road FCC regulations, and FCC and court de- As James Landis put it in his devastat- to sexual prowess and a fun-packed cisions.° It provides, in summary, that ing report to President Kennedy: "... it adult world. A Federal Trade Commis- a broadcaster has an obligation to treat is the daily machine-gun-like impact on sion report deplored the impact of ciga- "controversial issues of public impor- both agency and its staff of industry rep- rette commercials. Senator Robert Ken- tance" fairly, and to present all sides of resentations that makes for industry nedy had suggested legislation outlawing such issues during the course of his pro- orientation on the part of many honest them. Hundreds of thousands of Ameri- gramming. The remedy it provides, and and capable agency members as well as cans wrote letters to everybody they which John Banzhaf sought, is that the agency staffs." could think of—Senators, Congressmen, FCC can order a station complained of to The remedy, in my view, is not going to the networks, advertisers, the FTC—and present the omitted points of view. (The come from spontaneous government ac- the FCC. Most got replies; some did not. FCC generally leaves it up to the station tion. Ordinary citizens can, must—and But nothing happened. to decide how this is to be done.) In this upon occasion do—influence those ad- This protest failed I believe, because case, said Mr. Banzhaf, the debate about ministrative decisions. But effective citi- it ignored "the law of effective reform." cigarette smoking is "a controversial is- zen representaton requires considerably Vague feelings rather than facts were sue of public importance." Cigarette more sophistication than has been gen- presented, The letter writers were not commercials constitute the presentation erally evidenced. specific about who had done something of a particular point of view, (Cigarette One basic principle, which I will call wrong. They did not refer to any legal smoking is associated with vigor, suc- "the law of effective reform," is this: in principle that had been violated. And, cess, and good times.) WCBS had failed, order to get relief from legal institutions finally, they did not seek a precise rem- he said, to present the other point of (Congress, courts, agencies) one must edy. Indeed, many such letters begin, view. (Cigarette smoking is also associ- assert, first, the factual basis for the "Can't the FCC do something about ated with gruesome lingering illnesses grievance and the specific parties in- and death.) The "fairness doctrine" e- volved; second, the legal principle that °A pamphlet known as "The Fairness indicates relief is due (Constitutional Primer" is available free on request from provision, statute, regulation, court or Mr. Johnson began a seven-year term on the FCC, Washington, D.C. 20554. Other free the Federal Communications Commission agency decision) ; and third, the precise pamphlets describe the rules concerning the in 1966. He is a former practicing attar. right of rebuttal to personal attacks and remedy sought (new legislation or regu- asp and Berkeley law professor, and was the equal-time rights of political candidates. lations, license revocation, fines, or an Such rules of responsible conduct are under appointed U.S. Maritime Administrator almost constant legal challenge by the net. order changing practices). When this in 1964 at the age of twenty-nine. works and broadcasters, as they are now. Copyright (?) 1969 by Harper's Magazine, Inc. Reprinted from the February, 1969 issue of Harper's Magazine. All Rights Reserved. THE EASY CHAIR quires, therefore, that the FCC order are supposed to vote in this election often Having's National Citizens Committee WCBS (and, by implication, all other do not even know it is being held. All the for Broadcasting (609 Fifth Avenue, stations) to present information about licenses in each state expire at the same New York, New York 10017) is showing the health hazards of cigarette smoking. time. (For example, New York broad- signs of possessing the capacity and Mr. Banzhaf won. A potential of some casters' licenses are renewed June 1, courage to play a very constructive role fifty to one hundred million dollars' 1969. Other expiration dates can be ob- in this regard. worth of free anti-smoking commercials tained from the FCC.) Any local organi- Agency legal action is not, of course, are now being presented in the course of zation with a stake in the quality of the only form of popular participation in a year over radio and television. As a re- broadcasting (church, union, civil-rights policy formation. John Banzhaf could sult of his rather simple act and invest-. group, or civic club) can appear as a have organized mass picketing, protest- ment in a six-cent stamp he has produced party in a license-renewal proceeding by ing the immorality of stations and to- a result that federal officials and hun- writing the FCC that it wishes to be a bacco manufacturers profiting from the dreds of thousands of concerned Ameri- party, expressing its views in writing, or promotion of disease and death. The cans had been unable to bring about: requesting an oral hearing. It can not church could have obtained thousands of .cigarette consumption has declined in only participate in the FCC proceeding, signatures on a petition and sent it to our nation for the first time in its his- but—often more important—it can ap- the President or to Jackson's Congress- tory. peal to a court for reversal if the FCC man. Either could have conducted a sit- The point of this story is not that grants the renewal unjustifiably. in at the FCC or at station WLBT. "one man can make a difference" (al- This right was first established five (WNDT-TV in New York was seized by though he can, and did), or that the years ago, when the United Church of twenty hippies during a broadcast-in "fairness doctrine" is the magic solution Christ, along with two leaders of the about a year ago.) The point is not that to all complaints about broadcasting (al- Jackson, Mississippi, Negro community, the activities they chose to pursue were though it has not been used as much as it the Reverend Robert L. T. Smith and Mr. somewhat more gentlemanly. It's that might). The point is that for each citizen Aaron Henry, filed with the FCC a peti- the appropriate legal remedy may be the grievance (about broadcasting or other tion to deny the application for license most efficient and effective path to re- matters) there is one particular course renewal of the local TV station, WLBT. form. of action suggested by "the law of effec- Their petition, which represented the tive reform" that will bring the quickest culmination of a decade of complaints Within the past two years a number of and most thorough results in the most ef- by Jackson Negroes against WLBT, al- other groups have bestirred themselves, ficient and cheapest way. Any effective leged that the station systematically ex- by effective legal means, about the broad- reformer must spend at least as much cluded Negroes from access to its facili- casting situation in their communities. energy planning that optimum strategy ties and that it had systematically pro- Four interesting cases are illustrative. as executing it.