Foreword
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been regulating ownership of mass media since commercial radio first came on the scene in the 1920s. Its stated purpose is to prevent the emergence of dominant media monopolies by establishing limits on the ownership of radio, television, satellite, and cable broadcasting outlets.The Telecommunications Act of 1996 was the first major overhaul of telecommunications law in more than 60 years. (See "Telecommunications Reform," Congressional Digest 74, no. 1[January 1996]). To achieve the Act’s goal of opening the telecommunications market to competition, Congress authorized the FCC to take deregulatory steps to eliminate barriers that discouraged…
