A hue and cry went up among Clinton-Gore Democratics and political pundits when it surfaced that NBC and Fox would not carry the first debate between GOP and Democratic presidential candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore, respectively, last Tuesday night. Was there outrage that this was an affront to the democratic process or were they worried fewer Americans would see Gore pummel Bush. As it turned out, Bush held his own.
Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt, a longtime Gore pal dating back to prep school in Washington, D.C., wrote a letter to the editor of The Washington Post. FCC Commissioner Susan Ness, desperately seeking reconfirmation, issued a press release. CTIA President Tom Wheeler, needing third-generation mobile-phone spectrum from broadcasters and others, decried the irresponsibility of TV networks who got spectrum for free. (No matter that the FCC gave away cellular phone licenses at no cost, even setting aside wireless permits in each market for the Baby Bells and GTE Corp.)
NBC, reeling from lousy summer Olympic ratings but mindful of all the bad publicity generated by its decision to broadcast baseball-a thinking person’s game-instead of a somewhat less heady competition, ultimately caved. The GE-owned TV network gave their affiliates the green light to air the Bush-Gore debate if they so wished.
Fox, intellectually honest about its mindless programming, didn’t think twice. “Dark Angel,” not the Bush-Gore debate, owned prime-time Fox airwaves Tuesday night.
Why all the outrage? Who really expected TV networks, whose bread and butter is sex and violence, to suddenly reform and become good corporate citizens.
TV broadcasters, the critics argue, have a legal obligation to air presidential debates as part of their spectrum contract with the FCC. Generally, I agree. TV, even with the rise of the Internet, remains the most powerful medium and an essential component of our representative democracy.
On the other hand, with live political events-like national conventions-largely staged and with the political process compromised by Big Money and poisoned by partisanship, you might ask yourself why CBS, ABC, CNN and PBS didn’t decide to follow the lead of NBC and Fox.
But there’s a bigger point here. What if TV’s days are numbered? What if the Internet, increasingly accessible by mobile phones and other wireless devices, becomes the dominant mass medium of the next generation? What then?
Perhaps federal regulators should forget the broadcasters and, instead, consider imposing public interest obligations on wireless carriers.
It may be the only way the public will ever see full-scale enhanced 911 and emergency alert services. Saving lives is a public interest obligation too. It should be enforced.
