MSNBC Rejects Christian Leaders' Ad Exposing Hate Group Leader Who Appears Regularly on the Network

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61. I suppose you can say they they are "public" in the same way that my cell phone calls are "public"

MSNBC doesn't have or need any license from the FCC. They transmit their service via a satellite transponder that they lease from the owner of the satellite. The owner of the satellite has obtained, via auction, the right to deliver signals using certain radio frequencies.

When I make a cell phone call, I am sending content over a portion of the radio spectrum that I have effectively "leased" from a wireless telephone company that has obtained the rights to use that spectrum in an auction.

Could the government have adopted a different approach? Yes. But they didn't. Which is why broadcasting (in which a broadcaster is granted a license to use a portion of the spectrum for "free" in return for being subject to certain (rapidly diminishing) public interest obligations is different from MSBNC, HBO, and my cell phone calls.