Free Speech Unmuted: Equal Time, Stephen Colbert, and the Future of Political Broadcasting, with Stuart Benjamin

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Is the FCC about to revive a broad reading of the Equal Time Rule—and should broadcast TV still get “special” First Amendment treatment in 2026? Jane and I discuss the matter with Prof. Stuart Benjamin, a leading scholar of federal communications law at Duke Law School.

And check out our past episodes:

• Student Speech, Threats, and the First Amendment
• Can Journalists Be Charged for Involvement in Protests? The Don Lemon Dilemma
• 2025: The Year In Free Speech
• Does the First Amendment Protect Supposedly “Addictive” Algorithms?
• Defamation Law in the Age of AI with Lyrissa Lidsky
• Free Speech and the Future of Legal Education
• From Brandenburg to Britain: Rethinking Free Speech in the Digital Era with Eric Heinze
• Kimmel, the FCC, and the Government’s Power Over Broadcast Speech
• A Conversation with FIRE’s Greg Lukianoff
• A Burning First Amendment Issue: President Trump’s Executive Order on Flag Desecration
• Free Speech and Doxing
• The Supreme Court Rules on Protecting Kids from Sexually Themed Speech Online
• Free Speech, Public School Students, and “There Are Only Two Genders”
• Can AI Companies Be Sued for What AI Says?
• Harvard v. Trump: Free Speech and Government Grants
• Trump’s War on Big Law
• Can Non-Citizens Be Deported For Their Speech?
• Freedom of the Press, with Floyd Abrams
• Free Speech, Private Power, and Private Employees
• Court Upholds TikTok Divestiture Law
• Free Speech in European (and Other) Democracies, with Prof. Jacob Mchangama
• Protests, Public Pressure Campaigns, Tort Law, and the First Amendment
• Misinformation: Past, Present, and Future
• I Know It When I See It: Free Speech and Obscenity Laws
• Speech and Violence
• Emergency Podcast: The Supreme Court’s Social Media Cases
• Internet Policy and Free Speech: A Conversation with Rep. Ro Khanna
• Free Speech, TikTok (and Bills of Attainder!), with Prof. Alan Rozenshtein
• The 1st Amendment on Campus with Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky
• Free Speech On Campus
• AI and Free Speech
• Free Speech, Government Persuasion, and Government Coercion
• Deplatformed: The Supreme Court Hears Social Media Oral Arguments
• Book Bans – or Are They?

Thank you.

All the best,

Vy

—

Vy (Vee) Nguyen

Product Marketing Manager

(650) 736-9633 | pvnguyen@stanford.edu

The post Free Speech Unmuted: Equal Time, Stephen Colbert, and the Future of Political Broadcasting, with Stuart Benjamin appeared first on Reason.com.

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