Marc Sophos This is a lengthy work on the subject of broadcast deregulation, its excesses, and its effects. To get a general sense of what the piece is about, read the Introduction and the Conclusion first.
Footnotes are at the end of each section.
To our great cost, the scandals over the savings and loan bailout and the Federal nuclear weapons plant cleanups remind us that reasonable regulation serves essential social purposes. It protects society from the tremendous damage to our human, fiscal and environmental health that laissez-faire would otherwise impose on us. Your work is a useful part of the antidote we need to the deregulatory excesses of the 1980s. Unfortunately, so much has happened to erode the public interest standard that its future is uncertain. As I contemplate how to do that, your article will be most helpful for its historical content and its strong statement of the rationale for the public-interest standard.