Editor: You wrote: "Let's just consider broadcasting part of the press and leave it alone, just as the Constitution says” (“Journalism Deans Need to Go Back to School,” Dec. 28, 2007).

I write: "Let's not."

Should the government keep its hands off newspapers? Absolutely. Newspapers should be permitted to print whatever they want, and suffer the consequences. After all, it's their wood pulp, their ink, their private distribution system. And if the marketplace rejects the newspaper, you and I can always start a different one (if we can raise the venture capital).

Television is a horse of a different color, attributable to a one-word distinction: bandwidth. TV operators have been handed by the government an incalculably valuable piece of property in that finite bandwidth, and many of us are deeply disappointed with what they've done with it. If you want to drill for oil on government land, it shouldn't be surprising to learn that there are rules and regulations the government wants followed. Same here.

Remember the old days when every major market station had a programming director, an equal to the news director? Some are still around, but they're like roses in the snow—few and far between and remarkable for their ability to survive brutal conditions.

I don't always agree with academia. But they've got it right on this one.

Steve Dickstein

Steven Dickstein, a Philadelphia attorney, has been representing network and local broadcast journalists for 30 years. He can be reached at
dickstein@dickstein-scutti.com.