President's Task Force on Communications Policy
The President's Task Force on Communications Policy was established on August 14, 1967, by President Lyndon B. Johnson to address various issues surrounding communications technology. Chaired by Eugene V. Rostow, the task force was composed of input from fifteen federal agencies over a sixteen-month period. Its report emphasized the need for deregulation in communications, advocating for increased private initiative and innovation. The task force identified the potential of the cable industry to enhance programming diversity and suggested that the Federal Communications Commission's supervision might not effectively foster the desired diversity in broadcasting. Additionally, it recommended establishing a dedicated office within the executive branch to manage communications oversight. However, the report's release was delayed until May 1969, after Johnson's administration, and accompanied by a disclaimer from President Richard Nixon’s administration, indicating a lack of endorsement for its findings. The political climate, including the defeat of the Democrats in the 1968 election and Johnson's personal financial interests in broadcasting, played significant roles in the report's limited impact and dissemination.
President's Task Force on Communications Policy
Date: August, 1967 - May, 1969
Place: Washington, D.C.
Significance: The task force’s 1968 report recommended the removal of unnecessary restraints on private communication initiatives and the encouragement of diversity and innovation in radio and television broadcasting
On August 14, 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered a message to Congress revealing the formation of the President’s Task Force on Communications Policy. The task force, he announced, would study a variety of issues relating to communications technology, including matters relating to radio and television broadcasting. Johnson appointed then Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Eugene V. Rostow, a Yale law professor prior to his joining the Johnson Administration, to chair the task force.
The task force produced its report late in Johnson’s administration. The massive report was the product of sixteen months of work and of the input from fifteen federal agencies and departments. The task force stressed the need to deregulate certain aspects of communications technology and to provide as free a field as possible for private initiative and innovation in communications matters. The task force, whose report emphasized the value of diversity in broadcasting, doubted whether closer supervision by the Federal Communications Commission was a fruitful path to the desired diversity. It saw great promise in the cable industry because the medium seemed poised to generate a broader diversity of programming. The task force also recommended the establishment of an office within the president’s executive branch to coordinate the role of this branch in overseeing communications issues.
The report produced by the task force arrived late enough in Johnson’s term that his administration took no action to implement its recommendations. The report, in fact, was never officially released by the Johnson Administration, perhaps because its generally procompetition and prodiversity findings were not entirely consistent with the personal financial interests of Johnson, whose family owned a broadcast station in Texas that was the chief source of the president’s private wealth. The defeat of the Democrats in the 1968 presidential election may have also blunted any urgency in making public the findings of the task force. A change in presidential administrations had a similar effect. When President Richard Nixon assumed the executive office in January, 1969, political machinations within his administration appear to have temporarily suppressed the task force report. Early in 1969 a White House aid informed the press that the final report of the task force could not be located. Ultimately, in May, 1969, the White House released the report with a disclaimer asserting that the administration did not endorse any of the task force’s findings.