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8  MANHATTAN COMMUNITY ACCESS CORP. v. HALLECK 

Opinion of the Court 

ing:  private  cable  operators;  private  nonprofit  organiza-
tions;  municipalities;  and  other  public  and  private  com-
munity  organizations  such  as  churches,  schools,  and  li-
braries.  See Denver Area, 518 U. S., at 761–762 (plurality 
opinion);  R.  Oringel  &  S.  Buske,  The  Access  Manager’s 
Handbook:  A  Guide  for  Managing  Community  Television 
14–17 (1987). 
  The  history  of  public  access  channels  in  Manhattan 
further illustrates the point.  In 1971, public access chan-
nels  first  started  operating  in  Manhattan.    See  D.  Bren-
ner, M. Price, & M. Meyerson, Cable Television and Other 
Nonbroadcast  Video  §6:29,  p. 6–47  (2018).    Those  early 
Manhattan public  access  channels were  operated  in  large 
part  by  private  cable  operators,  with  some  help  from 
private  nonprofit  organizations.    See  G.  Gillespie,  Public 
Access Cable Television in the United States and Canada 
37–38  (1975);  Janes,  History  and  Structure  of  Public 
Access  Television,  39  J.  Film  &  Video,  No.  3,  pp.  15–17 
(1987).  Those private cable operators continued to operate 
the  public  access  channels  until  the  early  1990s,  when 
MNN  (also  a  private  entity)  began  to  operate  the  public 
access channels. 
  In  short,  operating  public  access  channels  on  a  cable 
system is not a traditional, exclusive public function within 
the meaning of this Court’s cases. 

B 
  To  avoid  that  conclusion,  the  producers  widen  the  lens 
and contend that the relevant function here is not simply 
the operation of public access channels on a cable system, 
but  rather  is  more  generally  the  operation  of  a  public 
forum for speech.  And according to the producers, opera-
tion of a public forum for speech is a traditional, exclusive 
public function. 
  That  analysis  mistakenly  ignores  the  threshold  state-
action  question.    When  the  government  provides  a  forum