NAB's Smith Calls Newsroom Study Info Gathering Process

Gordon Smith

National Association of Broadcasters Pres/CEO Gordon Smith talked about the future of television on C-SPAN's The Communicators series this week and gave his perspective on the U.S. Supreme Court decision on ABC v. Aereo, Inc. that Aereo was violating copyright law by allowing its subscribers to stream content from broadcast television networks.

The NAB had filed an amicus brief opposing Aereo. 

Other topics include spectrum auctions, the impact of mergers of large communications companies, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under Chairman Tom Wheeler, and efforts to extend the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act, which would expire during 2014.

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Concerning the FCC's controversial newsroom study, Smith called it "a regulator getting into the editorial rooms of broadcasters, and I think there were real First Amendment concerns about that approach.  That said, I think the FCC's motives were not to infringe upon the first amendment, but to get the critical information they wanted to have.  But it's frankly hard to do without... the state getting into editorial decisions of newsrooms."