February 25, 1994
Sponsored by the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information.

The Cable Television Act of 1992 has become the subject of heated litigation. Se veral developments have forced an assessment of the constitutional treatment of cable and of electronic media in general. These developments include direct challenges to the law, cross-industry mergers, and the Clinton Administrations proposals on ope n access (Title VII regulation).

Main issues discussed were:

• symmetry in the regulation of communications
• preferential access to the transmission conduit; * co-existence of common and private carriage
• mandated access to content
• editorial responsibilities for leased and public access channels
• effective competition and free expression
• the FCC implementation of the 1992 Cable Act.

The event, part of a broader effort to examine new regulatory issues involving all electronic media, sought to add the dimension of constitutional discussion to the regulatory policy debate.

CITI commissioned a series of articles on these subjects written by noted academics and other researchers hold ing a variety of views. The papers were presented at a conference covered by C-SPAN and attended by eminent scholars, practitioners, and regulators. Managers, industry observers, and advocates from all segments of the media world attended this event. These papers are published in a symposium issue of COMM/ENT, the communications and entertainment law journal.

Free Speech Rights of Cablecasters
Burt Neuborne, New York University Law School

• Moderator:
  Dr. Leonard Tow, Century Communications
• Discussants:
• George Vradenburg, Fox Broadcasting
• Peggy Charren, Action for Children's TV
• Antoinette Cook Bush, Skadden Arps

Cable Operator's Editorial Responsibility for Public and Leased Access Channels
Fred Schauer, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government

• Moderator:
  Floyd Abrams, Cahill Gordon
• Discussants:
• Joseph Reilly, Former Director, Morality in Media
• Harold Farrow, Farrow, Bramson, Chavez & Bakin
• David Bartlett, Radio Television News Directors Association

Mandated Access for Broadcast Signals: Retransmission Consent
Roger Pilon, CATO Institute

• Moderator:
  Adam Clayton Powell, Freedom Forum and PBS
• Discussants:
• James J. Popham, Assoc. of Independent TV Stations
• Patrick Maines, The Media Institute
• James Goodale, Debevoise & Plimpton

The Impact of Cable-Telephone Mergers on Common and Private Carriage
Edwin Baker, University of Pensylvania Law School

• Moderator:
  Michael Botein, New York Law School
• Discussants:
• Andrew Schwartzman, Media Access Project
• John Thorne, Bell Atlantic
• Frank Lloyd, Mintz Levin

Rate Regulation, Effective Competition & The Cable Act of 1992
Stanley Besen & John R. Woodbury, Charles River Associates

• Moderator:
  Rose Helen Perez, Times Mirror
• Discussants:
• Glen O. Robinson, University of Virginia School of Law
• Tom Hazlett, University of California at Davis

Common Carriage and Electronic Speech
Cass Sunstein, University of Chicago Law School

• Moderator:
  Nadine Strossen, New York Law School & ACLU
• Discussants:
• Mark McCarthy, Cap Cities-ABC
• Ed Lenert, Trinity University
• Marjorie Heins, Arts Censorship Project, ACLU

A First Amendment Analysis of the FCC's Application of the 1992 Cable Act
Michael Meyerson, University of Baltimore School of Law

• Moderator:
  Charles Firestone, Aspen Institute
• Discussants:
• Nicholas Miller, Miller, Young & Holbrooke
• John Cole, Cole, Raywid & Braverman
• Ronald Plesser, Piper & Marbury

New Technology and the First Amendment - A New Model
Robert Corn-Revere, Federal Communications Commission

• Moderator:
  Michael Noll, University of Southern California
• Discussants:
• Elliot M. Mincberg, People for the American Way
• Prof. Vincent Blasi, Columbia University

Mandated Access to Programs by Competing Media
Wendy Gordon, Boston University Law School

• Moderator:
  Bill Squadron, Nat'l Assoc. of Telecom. Officers & Advisers
• Discussants:
• Dan Brenner, NCTA
• Gara LaMarche, Fund for Free Expression

Taxonomy of Access - Must Carry Rules
Monroe Price & Donald W. Hawthorne, Benjamin Cardozo School of Law

Organized by:
Eli M. Noam, CITI
Carolyn Cutler, CITI