Entity | Nicholas Johnson

Nicholas Johnson (born September 23, 1934) is an American academic and lawyer. He wrote How to Talk Back to Your Television Set and was a Federal Communications Commission commissioner from 1966 to 1973. He is retired from teaching at the University of Iowa College of Law, with an emphasis on communications and Internet law, and since 2006 has posted over 1000 blog essays. Johnson was born in Iowa City in 1934 and raised in Iowa, to which he returned in 1980. His father was the noted psychologist and speech scientist, Wendell Johnson, lead researcher of the controversial Monster Study. He received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Texas at Austin, served as law clerk to U.S. Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit, Judge John R. Brown and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black. He began his law teaching career at the University of California, Berkeley, practiced with Covington & Burling, Washington, and held three presidential appointments, including Administrator, U.S. Maritime Administration, and F.C.C. commissioner. Following the F.C.C. service he chaired the National Citizens Committee for Broadcasting in Washington, and ran for Congress from Iowa's Third Congressional District.