ABSTRACT
With the continuing wave of mergers and acquisitions in the industry, it appears that the control of content on the media sources most available to the public could rest in the hands of a few corporations. The dilemma and the challenge is to find ways to provide for diversity of content, while recognizing the free speech rights that are being emphasized for those corporations. This chapter identifies policy options that could be pursued in light of the initial court opinions, which have begun to define those rights. By focusing on issues of free speech, rather than economics and antitrust, communication corporations have found a way to make fundamental changes in the way in which they are regulated. This creates a new legal environment for the development of regulatory policy. Although the courts are giving greatly expanded rights to control content to the system owners, there are other cases that suggest that this content control may not be absolute.
