A spectrum or airwaves trust would have a distinct
mission: to reduce the influence of corporations on our
democracy. Its economic and ecological impacts could be
significant (reducing corporate political influence will
improve many policies), but they’re secondary to
the political objective.
According to a study by the New America Foundation,
the market value of the airwave licenses we’ve
given free to corporate broadcasters is roughly $500
billion. It’s possible this value will decline as
unlicensed wi-fi spreads, but meanwhile broadcasters sell
our airwaves to advertisers and reap billions that
belong, at least in part, to all of us.
Part of that money comes from political candidates who
must purchase TV and radio ads to get elected. The
problem isn’t so much the unearned windfall
broadcasters collect; rather, it’s the fact that
candidates are compelled to pay it to them. That makes
politicians kowtow to corporate donors in order to pay
broadcasters. Other democracies give free airtime to
political candidates, but we protect the
broadcasters’ lock on our airwaves. By privatizing
our airwaves, in other words, we’ve effectively
privatized our democracy. The job of a spectrum trust
would be to take back our democracy by taking back our
airwaves.
This could be done in a couple of ways. One
wouldn’t require an actual trust: Congress could
simply say that, in exchange for free spectrum licenses,
broadcasters must give a certain amount of free airtime
to political candidates. Alternatively, broadcasters
could pay for their licenses, with revenue going to a
nonpartisan trust. That trust would allocate funds to
candidates for the purchase of TV and radio ads; the
allocation formula would take account of cost differences
between media markets and other relevant variables.
Neither of these approaches would prevent corporations
from lobbying or contributing to candidates’ other
expenses, but they would level the political playing
field by greatly reducing the sums candidates have to
raise to get elected. ...
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