Charles W. Chook Bryant

So you got to think this is going to end up in court at some point.

Sure.

And it did quite a few times over the years, not surprisingly.

And for about a—

20 to 30-year period, U.S.

courts basically supported the FCC in fulfilling this mandate.

There were some real highlights in 1969.

There were a couple of big court rulings that affirmed this enforcement.

One was Red Lion Broadcasting Company Incorporated, the FCC.

It's a little mouthy.

It is.

So this one was sort of two cases in one.

The Supreme Court was able to kill two birds.

One case was an FCC appeal of a lower court ruling that said the personal attack and political editorial rules, those two big rules, were unconstitutional.

And the second was a broadcaster appealing of a lower court ruling that said the FCC's application of those rules was constitutional.

So they said, all right, you guys, let's just combine this into one thing.

And we'll hear the case.

And in the latter one, there was an investigative journalist named Fred J. Cook, and he filed a complaint.

And like we said, it was case-by-case stuff.

So this complaint made it all the way to the Supreme Court.