Abstract
The most useful lesson of Red Lion and subsequent Supreme Court cases about broadcast content regulation is that the Court is willing to defer to congressional and Federal Communications Commission decisions in the context of regulating the communications commons. In turn, the exercise of the Commission's discretion to regulate in the public interest has reflected several different views of the regulator's role. At one end of the regulatory spectrum, the Commission attempted to regulate content in order to create and cement a homogeneous national narrative. At the other extreme, the agency jettisoned community-building in favor of market-supportive attention to individual viewers' tastes. Here, Levi proposes that the Commission shift its focus from the purported protection of children to the protection of the public sphere--a goal it has recognized as central to democracy since the inception of radio regulation.