Federal Communications Commission FCC 17-3
STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER MICHAEL P. O'RIELLY
Re: Revisions to Public Inspection File Requirements – Broadcaster Correspondence File and Cable 
Principal Headend Location, MB Docket No. 16-161.
It’s been a year since the Commission moved to transition broadcasters’ public inspection files to 
an online format, and I made the point at the time that we should reassess our requirements with respect to 
the leftover bits of information that could not be moved online, by either broadcasters or cable providers, 
for different reasons.  This request was based on the simple premise that if companies are undertaking the 
burden to move vast quantities of information online, we should ensure they are able to move all the 
information online to take advantage of the potential security dividend to be gained.  Taking this step also 
acknowledges the ease with which the American public can use other technologies to register their 
compliments, views, concerns and/or objections with broadcasters serving their particular area.   
Local broadcasters and their hardworking staffs are mostly celebrated in their communities due to 
their high-profile work performing various official and public service functions, but this exposure and 
notoriety can leave them particularly vulnerable.  Station employees face safety risks every day, and have 
been targets of attacks.  Similarly, the need for cable operators to open their premises to the public created 
an unmistakable security risk.  These were necessary risks to take in an era of paper files, but online 
public files have the potential to improve the safety of broadcast and cable facilities while enhancing 
public access to important information.  This potential can now be fully realized by broadcasters and 
cable operators alike. 
The patience of everyone concerned has been rewarded with this common sense Order that I am 
pleased to support.  I very much appreciate the efforts of the Media Bureau to see this initiative through, 
and the support of my colleagues Chairman Pai and Commissioner Clyburn to get it over the goal line.  
And I recommit myself to the task of doing whatever I can to clear out similar underbrush in this and 
other regulated spaces.  We will all be better off if we spend half the time we do regulating on finding 
ways to remove unnecessary and obsolete burdens on broadcasters.