The Nation - News from July 22, 1986

After charging that the cable television industry has too much control over what TV stations a viewer can watch, Federal Communications Commissioner James H. Quello said he will urge his fellow commissioners to reinstate a rule requiring cable TV firms to carry all local stations. The issue is to be voted on by the FCC on Aug. 7. A federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., overturned the panel’s longstanding “must carry” rule in July, 1985, saying the free-speech clause of the Constitution forbids the government to tell a cable company what programs to transmit. The court invited the commission to recast the rule.