In the landmark, Dartmouth College v. Woodward case, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of private institutions against public influence.
Later, after the 14th amendment was ratified to the US Constitution, corporate lawyers would argue, and usually successfully, the word, "person", as used in the 14th amendment to identify people granted equal protections because corporations, rather than lifeless businesses, were really extensions of the people who had created, owned and operated them. Although the wording of the 14th amendment does not include any mention of businesses nor corporations, and it seems clear to most who have studied it that its original intent was not in support of those, it has been used, time and again, on the behalf of businesses and corporations, to create a sense of "personhood" when it comes to corporations and the law.
Replacing the Federal Radio Commission by the enactment of the Communications Act of 1934, the FCC was created primarily to "make available so far as possible, to all the people of the United States, without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex, rapid, efficient, Nation-wide, and world-wide wire and radio communication services with adequate facilities at reasonable charges."
Falling under its jurisdiction of public access to channels of communication was telephone service, which, after some small ingress by other telecommunications companies in the area of long distance calling, ultimately led to the dissolution of At&T's monopoly of American phone services.
However, by that time, 1982, several changes were underway in the world of US media: the rise of cable, and later, satellite television; computers and the Internet; and cellular phones.
Although the history of cable television dates as far back as 1924, it began in the US in 1948 as a way of concentrating a radio signal's power in order to reach distant communities where over the air transmissions were hard if not impossible to receive. Originally called Community Access, or Community Antenna Television (CATV), this service was provided free until one year later when a subscription fee was charged for use. This fee, in part, was a result of the franchise fee levied by counties and cities for use of public land and right of way. As a result of being appointed arbiters of public land and its right of way, This franchise fee is set in negotiations between local governments and cable providers after local governments determine which media companies will have access to their public based upon the outcome of bidding competition. Government municipalities are guaranteed a maximum of 5% of a cable operator's gross revenues which in turn is supposed to be used for as public, government and educational television. The cable companies in turn, offset the franchise fee by passing off its cost to the cable customers. In other words, local governments select what their public has access to, not based upon reliability, choice or quality, but rather, who can pay the most amount of money for access to public property and right of way. The winners of these bids then defers any and all costs onto its customers who have little to no choice in their selection of cable accessed media.
Meanwhile, shifts in technology which favored the use of cable over traditional broadband (rabbit ears) televisions meant that what we are really buying these days are not televisions in the classic sense, but rather, large and expensive monitors. Additionally, the rise of Internet and cellphone use also precipitated s shift away from traditional sources of communication; airwaves and telephone lines, to newer, non-traditional sources; digital signals and satellite transmissions.
In 1949 the FCC introduced the Fairness Doctrine, designed to require "equired the holders of broadcast licenses to both present controversial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was, in the Commission's view, honest, equitable and balanced". However, in the late 70's, a new technology used across television signals, teletext, was becoming popular. So popular and so limited a resource, that the FCC declared it immune to the Fairness Doctrine. In 1986, the US Supreme Court ruled that teletext technology was indeed not subject to the rules of the Fairness Doctrine. And, to obliterate any further misunderstandings as to the application of the Fairness Doctrine, the US Supreme Court simply ruled it out of existence in 1987.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 ordered the FCC to conduct a biennial review of its rules to determine whether or not they were still in the "public interest" in light of newer competition. That public interest was what the FCC was originally established to safeguard. However, as a result of that act and of a slow deregulation of big business, more and more avenues of communication and media have been bought up by fewer and fewer companies with one result being that over 4,000 previously independent radio stations have been bought out and minority ownership of television stations has dropped to its lowest figure since 1990.
In 2003 the FCC, with one public hearing held, voted to virtually eliminate any and all regulations regarding bans on media consolidation. That was later over turned in 2004 and the US Supreme Court turned down an appeal to that ruling. However, in 2007 and 2013, the FCC again moved to relax multi-ownership rules.
In 2004 the FCC granted digital TV licenses to all previous owners of analog TV licenses without an auction, meaning in essence, that only those larger companies with already held licenses were granted access to the impending new technology. Later, the FCC ordered all national and local TV stations to switch from analog to digital capacity and therefore, forced the public to switch out their old televisions for new ones capable of receiving digital signals. As of June 12, 2009, all full power analog terrestrial TV licenses in the US were terminated.
Due to resentment over ever-increasing cable and satellite TV fees and an increase in the availability of movies and TV shows online, more and more people began to cut their ties with the fewer and fewer Big Media corporations. However, those cuts could only extend as far as their television sets; Big Media still owns the phone lines and our access to the Internet.
That is a simplified and loose history to what has happened to the "public interest" in access to communication. Robert McChesney writes about this extensively, but his book, "Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times", is probably the best, close up look at what has happened to the media in the US.
Finally, this article which was recently released on The Verve's site gives a chilling look into what is happening to the Internet:
Sweet dreams!
