In the broadcasting field, we have been examining various aspects of the regulatory environment to determine where it is possible to lessen Government's involvement in the process of getting information-news and entertainment-to the public. Our most fundamental goal is to find ways of enhancing first amendment rights and interests. We are continuing to work with the FCC and the Congress on the lessening of radio regulation, which we proposed in 1971. We have developed legislative proposals for the modification of license renewals policies and procedures, which we expect to submit to the Congress for its consideration this year.

In the area of Government communications, there has long been a concern that better management and policy direction were needed. Last year, we took several steps to reduce expenditures and improve our communications capability. Various problems in the Emergency Broadcast System and emergency warning procedures were resolved. The long-standing FTS/AUTOVON merger controversy was resolved. Important technical and managerial improvements in the spectrum allocation process were begun. We also established a planning process for coordinating anticipated Government satellites and navigation systems. We have concluded in this area that the best approach to Government communications planning and policy is prospective; and to that end, last year OTP created the Government Communications Policy and Planning Council.

We have also reviewed the structure of the U.S. international communications industry and have developed a policy framework within which regulatory practices can be improved, and industry can continue to improve its performance and efficiency. I believe that our policy in this area will provide a sound foundation for guiding and evaluating whatever specific changes in legislative or regulatory provisions may be necessary or appropriate in the future.

Mr. Chairman, I have reviewed only briefly some of the most important aspects of OTP's work, and briefly at that. I hope that this short review, together with my longer statement, provides the subcommittee with a good picture of the role we play in developing communications policy and, on behalf of the executive branch, acting as a partner in the policy process with the FCC, the Congress, and the public. In particular, I think OTP and the Commission have maintained a sound balance between the FCC's independence in administering the Communications Act and its function as an arm of the Congress, on the one hand, and its ability to cooperate with the executive branch on long-range policy considerations on the other.

Mr. Chairman, I believe that OTP has made a good start in grappling with some of the basic communications issues we are facing in this country today. Only recently have we as a people come to understand how extensively communications affect us: How we deal with one another, how we form our national character and identity, how we engage in our political process, and how we make our economy more productive. We can turn the tremendous advances in communications technology to our benefit only if there is informed public debate and discussion on major communications policy issues. This is what we have been endeavoring to do, and I am glad that to

gether with the Congress, the FCC, the industry, and the public, we are making good progress.

Mr. Chairman, I would be pleased to respond to any questions.

Senator PASTORE. Taking your last statement, why are you so opposed to public affairs being discussed on public television?

Dr. WHITEHEAD. Mr. Chairman, we have no objection whatsoever to discussion of public affairs on public television. To the contrary, public television stations, and noncommercial stations have the same obligation as FCC licensees to further discussion of these matters as do commercial stations.

Senator PASTORE. Doesn't the fairness doctrine take care of that? You were opposed to that.

Dr. WHITEHEAD. The fairness doctrine certainly applies to noncommercial stations as well.

Senator PASTORE. That is right, but you have been opposed to that, you wanted to see it eliminated, didn't you?

Dr. WHITEHEAD. I made some proposals over a year ago that our long-run goal should be the elimination of the fairness doctrineSenator PASTORE. Isn't that the only thing that guarantees the balance you talk about?

Dr. WHITEHEAD. You have to differentiate between the "fairness doctrine," which is the case law that has grown up in the FCC, and the fairness obligation. We certainly are not opposed to the fairness obligation.

Senator PASTORE. Suppose you make the distinction?

Dr. WHITEHEAD. The fairness doctrine is a body of cases and interpretations that has evolved as the FCC has tried to deal with various cases brought before it dealing with the broadcaster's general obligation to be fair and objective. It is hard for anyone to be opposed to the idea that the broadcaster should be fair and objective in how he discusses his views or in who he lets on to discuss various points of view. This is a very great power that the broadcaster has and he certainly should exercise it in a fair way. However, in the absence of any clear and definitive policy as to what that means, the FCC and the courts together have been interpreting this on a case-by-case basis. As a result there is a confusing welter of precedents, opinions, judgments, and rough guidelines, and I think it is safe to say that the broadcaster and the public at large are very hard pressed to know what the fairness doctrine as an embodiment of the fairness obligation, means, and how it is to be interpreted.

Senator PASTORE. Won't balancing the news mean a different thing to different people? It certainly would mean a different thing to you than it might be to me.

Dr. WHITEHEAD. That is quite true.

Senator PASTORE. If anybody said anything about the Democratic Party I might get a little excited. If anybody said anything about the Republican Party you might get excited, yet I might jump with joy. Who will decide this balance that you keep talking about? That is the big question. You said in your speech you wanted the local licensee to be responsible no matter where programs emanate, whether from the network or wherever.

The big question I ask you is how can that individual make that proper balance, and who decides whether or not he is balancing correctly? Who is going to decide that?

Dr. WHITEHEAD. Mr. Chairman, that it the core of the problem. That is the issue that we have been discussing. We feel that in the first instance that responsibility should be borne by the licensee. That is nothing more, nothing less than what the Commission has held from the beginning of its existence.

Senator PASTORE. That is true under the law today, right?

Dr. WHITEHEAD. That is correct, sir.

Senator PASTORE. A licensee is accountable when he comes up for renewal be it 3 years or 5 years later. He has to prove he has followed the spirit and the provisions of the law. That is the law today, right? Dr. WHITEHEAD. It is as I understand it.

Senator PASTORE. Why do we have to change it? You are suggesting a change? You said there are 14 categories which are the criteria today for the renewal of the license, you said this is too cumbersome.

Well, as a matter of fact there are not specifically 14. The FCC has been very explicit since 1960 in saying these are the major program elements usually necessary to meet the public interest, but the elements were neither all embracing, nor constant.

Now you are actually advocating there be two criteria, one is as to whether or not the licensee has served the local community. Now isn't that required under the law today?

Dr. WHITEHEAD. It certainly is.

Senator PASTORE. So why do we have to change it?

Dr. WHITEHEAD. We think that it was in everyone's interest to have the criteria spelled out more clearly.

Senator PASTORE. Did you think that you spelled it out? Are you going to spell it out in your bill?

Dr. WHITEHEAD. I think the legislation we are preparing will set that out very clearly, yes.

Senator PASTORE. Well, I will be a very surprised man if it happens. Now, No. 2, you said-and I agree with you that a matter of policy should not be settled in the contest of a license renewal proceeding. In other words, if you don't want a newspaper to own the television station you ought to change the rules. I go along with that. There is some substance in what you have to say about reruns. But when you get to the first amendment you get yourself a little messed up, Mr. Whitehead. You get yourself a little messed up because you are arguing here that the only way you can enforce the first amendment is by making the licensee the watchdog of what the commentators have to say. Yet you have never been specific about what your gripe is.

You used the word "ideological plugola." When will you tell me what that means?

Dr. WHITEHEAD. The concept I had in mind there involved the ideological or political realm. The concept of plugola, which is fairly well known in the broadcasting community, involves plugging a product because it is in the personal interest of the reporter or disc jockey to do so. I simply pointed out in my speech that people plug ideas because they favor those ideas just as they may plug products because they have a financial interest in those products.

Senator PASTORE. Don't you think the President does that every time he has a news conference? Doesn't he try to plug ideas? Dr. WHITEHEAD. We all do.

Senator PASTORE. Well, that is the point. Why is it so bad?

Dr. WHITEHEAD. What I was referring to in my speech, Mr. Chairman, is the practice which some people claim to see on television. where objective news reporting, objective analysis of what is happening in the world is portrayed but what is in effect coming out is the favoring of one particular side.

Now, I was simply using

Senator PASTORE. Give me an example.

Dr. WHITEHEAD. I don't know that I can come up with

Senator PASTORE. Of course you can't come up with it. That is just the point. That is just the point that bothers us. You are asking this Congress to remedy an ill when we don't even have a diagnosis of the ailment.

Dr. WHITEHEAD. Mr. Chairman, I don't agree. I am not asking the Congress to remedy these matters. I am addressing the problem of how the FCC under the guidance of the Congress is going to deal with disputes in these areas. My speech said that where these kinds of problems exist, where people do have complaints, where there is something that somebody thinks falls into the category of ideological plugola, who should take corrective action. I said it is our very strong feeling that the first correction should take place in the profession of the news journalist and in the broadcasting station. Those are the people who have a responsibility for self-correction, self-criticism, and self-improvement. We are looking to that process rather than to the process of the Government to deal with these problems.

Senator PASTORE. But you are not saying that. You are not talking about self-discipline. You are talking about the local licensee being held responsible at renewal time for not balancing the news. That is what you said.

Am I wrong?

Dr. WHITEHEAD. That is not what I recall saying, Mr. Chairman. Senator PASTORE. Well, now, do you want me to read your speech to you?

The idea is to have the broadcaster's performance evaluated from the perspective of the people in its community and not the bureaucrats in Washington."

Now you tell me who is the "bureaucrat" in Washington that you are talking about. Is it you? Is it me? Is it Dean Burch? Who is this bureaucrat you are talking about?

Dr. WHITEHEAD. I am talking about all the employees of Government in Washington who have something to say about how licenses are renewed and how the industry is regulated.

Senator PASTORE. Does that make you a bureaucrat?

Dr. WHITEHEAD. In that context I suppose it does.

Senator PASTORE. Is this dramatization-to begin calling people bureaucrats?

Dr. WHITEHEAD. I do think, Mr. Chairman, the public does understand the word bureaucrat better than they understand some of the titles in Washington.

Senator PASTORE. That is true and I know how you used it, too. This idea of generating emotion among audiences--that may be dramatization to some people but I think it is unfair for a man who works out of the White House to be calling his colleagues who are appointed by the President bureaucrats.

Then you say that in your view-now listen to this, it is on page 25of Broadcasting Magazine, February 12, "cable television has not

thrived thus far because of network dominance."

"*** the power he [Whitehead] feels that the networks can bring to bear at the FCC and the Congress.'

I don't know what that means.

Now what do you mean by that? You mean to tell us that this committee is overpowered by the networks?

Dr. WHITEHEAD. I don't mean on

Senator PASTORE. This is rather reckless language for a man who is an adviser to the President of the United States.

Then you go on to say "Because the Commission is protective * * * it has frozen the growth of cable."--I remind you this is a Commission whose members are appointed by the President.

Do you believe that?

Dr. WHITEHEAD. Mr. Chairman, I believe that the growth of cable television has been slower in this country than it would otherwise havebeen

Senator PASTORE. That isn't answering my question.

Has it been thwarted by the Congress or FCC?

Dr. WHITEHEAD. I think the FCC has slowed the growth of cable; yes, sir.

Senator PASTORE. You think that? Don't you think the President ought to do something about it?

Dr. WHITEHEAD. I think the President should concern himself with those matters.

Senator PASTORE. I think he should do something about it rather than you making speeches about it.

Now here is another thing about cable television. Are you familiar with this letter sent out by a cable system?

Now I know that President Nixon-and I know this from personal knowledge is very much opposed to pornography in television, in the theaters, and in literature. I know that for a fact. He told me so. According to this letter a cable system is offering a wide selection of movies recommended for children rated G and GP such as "Living Free," "Black Beauty," and the "Pipe Piper," but there will also be a great many pictures meant for adults-complete and uncutsuch as "Klute," "Dirty Harry," "Sunday, Bloody Sunday."

Are you familiar with that?

Dr. WHITEHEAD. No, sir: I am not.

Senator PASTORE. What do you think about it?

Dr. WHITEHEAD. I think that anyone who undertakes to use the electronic media to intrude into the privacy of the home and portray things that are excessively violent, obscene, or things that are directed at children and are damaging to the development and moral character of those children, certainly should not be doing what he is doing. I think it is perfectly appropriate for the Congress and FCC to adopt measures to assure that the privacy of the American home is not invaded in that way. I share the President's concern and I share your well-known concern about these problems, Mr. Chairman. They are very important.

Senator PASTORE. Let me ask you a question. If you made that speech of December over again, would you say the same things over again? [Laughter.]