Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/414/914.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 01:26:37+00:00

Document:
In C.C.2d 409, which was interpreted in many quarters as a prohibition on the playing of 'drug related' songs by licensees. 1 That belief was strengthened five weeks later when the Commission's Bureau of Complaints and Compliance provided broadcasters with the names of 22 songs labelled 'drug oriented' on the basis of their lyrics. 2 The industry widely viewed this as a list of banned songs, and many licensees quickly acted to remove other songs from the air as [414 U.S. 914 , 915] well. Some announcers were fired for playing suspect songs.
Still unsure of its responsibilities, but desiring to avoid distorting its artistic judgments by superimposing the Commission's vague sociological ones, petitioner Yale Broadcasting Company drafted its own station policy and submitted it to the Commission, asking for a declaratory ruling on whether it complied with the Commission's orders. The station proposed to fulfill its duties in this area by public service and news pro- [414 U.S. 914 , 916] gramming rather than by censoring its music. It elaborated its policy in a six-page statement. The Commission, finding the proposed policy too 'abstract,' declined to issue any declaratory ruling. The petitioners then brought this action, challenging the Commission's actions on First Amendment grounds, and arguing that the regulations were impermissibly vague. Petitioners also argued that they should have been the subject to formal rule-making procedures.
I doubt that anyone would seriously entertain the notion that consistent with the First Amendment the [414 U.S. 914 , 917] Government could force a newspaper out of business if its news stories betrayed too much sympathy with those arrested on marihuana charges, or because it published articles by drug advocates such as Timothy Leary. The proposition is so clear that rarely has the Government ever tried such a thing. See Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697 ( 1931). If the Government set up a new bureau with the job of reviewing newspaper stories for such 'dangerous' tendencies, and with the power to put out of business those publications which failed to conform to the bureau's standards, the publisher would not have to wait until his newspaper had been destroyed to challenge the bureau's authority. The threat of governmental action alone would impose a prohibited restraint upon the press. 'Inhibition as well as prohibition against the exercise of precious First Amendment rights is a power denied to the government.' Lamont v. Postmaster General, 381 U.S. 301, 309 (1965) (Brennan, J., concurring). Cf. Bantam Books v. Sullivan, 372 U.S. 58 (1963); Dombrowski v. Pfister, 380 U.S. 479 (1965).
In New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 279 , 11 L. Ed.2d 686 (1964), we said that the State could not impose on newspapers the burden, under penalty of civil liability, of checking out every controversial statement for [414 U.S. 914 , 918] 'truth.' 'Under such a rule, would-be critics of official conduct may be deterred from voicing their criticism, even though it is believed to be true and even though it is in fact true, because of doubt whether it can be proved in court or fear of the expense of having to do so. They tend to make only statements which 'steer far wider of the unlawful zone.' . . . The rule thus dampens the vigor and limits the variety of public debate. It is inconsistent with the First and Fourteenth Amendments.' id., at 279. Songs play no less a role in public debate, whether they eulogize the John Brown of the abolitionist movement, or the Joe Hill of the union movement, provide a rallying cry such as 'We Shall Overcome,' or express in music the values of the youthful 'counterculture.' The Government cannot, consistent with the First Amendment, require a broadcaster to censor its music any more than it can require a newspaper to censor the stories of its reporters. Under our system the Government is not to decide what messages, spoken or in music, are of the proper 'social value' to reach the people.
[ Footnote 1 ] New York Times, March 7, 1971, p. 28, col. 3. In some cases stations stopped playing, regardless of subject or lyric, all the works of particular artists whose views might offend the Commission. Dissenting opinion of Chief Judge Bazelon below, D.C.Cir., 478 F.2d 594 (1973), citing petitioner's joint appendix at 87-88.
[ Footnote 2 ] In its subsequent order in April the Commission reported that the list of 22 songs had been identified by the Department of the Army. 31 F.C. C.2d 79 (1971). The Commission had not consulted with the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. New York Times, March 28, 1971, p. 41, col. 1.
[ Footnote 3 ] Hearings on the Effect of the Promotion and Advertising of Over- the-counter Drugs on Competition, Small Business, and Health and Welfare of the Public, before the Subcomm. on Monopoly of the Senate Select Comm. on Small Business, 92d Cong., 1st Sess., pt. 2, at 734-736 (1971).
[ Footnote 4 ] The rationale of Red Lion, supra, has now also been applied to newspapers by at least one state. See Tornillo v. Miami Herald Publishing Co., Fla.Sup.Ct., July 18, 1973, 287 So.2d 78 ( 2). While publishers and editors of newspapers would be surprised to learn that they were under a newly created federal bureau, such an event might not be unexpected given the retrogressive steps that we have witnessed.

References: v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.