@LouisIngenthron Public spectrum was the pretext. But I don’t think they’d have gone unregulated had they achieved comparable dominance by other means (any more than facebook / twitter google etc will, tacitly already have).

And it was hardly viewpoint neutral. The fairness doctrine demanded presentation of viewpoints a publisher might wish not to present, and let the state affirmatively define what viewpoints counted and what could (in fact should, must) be excluded.