Broadcasters invoke public consensus to legitimize contested decisions.

Evidence

When real conflicts of interest arise, the broadcasting institutions will often employ a reference to the consensus—to changing public feeling on an issue, to what “the great mass of the British public feels”—as an alternative source of legitimacy, an alternative court of appeal, to that of the established sources. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 874

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Judges seek approval from audiences they esteem, not only legal or policy ends — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2624; Broadcasting’s need for credibility traps it between consensus and its critics; Broadcasters regulate themselves mainly by imagining public opinion. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 874 (+1 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Judges seek approval from audiences they esteem, not only legal or policy ends — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2624; Broadcasting’s need for credibility traps it between consensus and its critics; Broadcasters regulate themselves mainly by imagining public opinion. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 874 (+1 more)