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Article: What kind of animal is cable television? (The Press And The Law)
- Article from:
- American Journalism Review
- Article date:
- October 1, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 University of Maryland. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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No issue in First Amendment law begs more for a definitive answer than this one: How much freedom of expression will be allowed to those who speak through the medium of cable television? A federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, has begun to answer the question by expanding cablecasters' rights. Only the U.S. Supreme Court, the judge suggested, could allow them even more freedom.
Cable television, has enjoyed a quartercentury of astonishing growth, is hot. Cable is available in 98 percent of American homes. Sixty-two percent of them are hooked up. In its infancy in the late 1960s, cable was an option in less than 10 percent of homes.
Yet cable's rights ...