Cite as: 512 U. S. 622 (1994)
Opinion of O'Connor, J.
other speakers on the theory that what they say is more conventional. Cf. Metro Broadcasting, Inc. v. FCC, 497 U. S. 547, 612-613 (1990) (O'Connor, J., dissenting); Pacific Gas & Elec. Co. v. Public Util. Comm'n of Cal., 475 U. S. 1, 20 (1986) (plurality opinion).
The interests in public affairs programming and educational programming seem somewhat weightier, though it is a difficult question whether they are compelling enough to justify restricting other sorts of speech. We have never held that the Government could impose educational content requirements on, say, newsstands, bookstores, or movie theaters; and it is not clear that such requirements would in any event appreciably further the goals of public education.
But even assuming, arguendo, that the Government could set some channels aside for educational or news programming, the Act is insufficiently tailored to this goal. To benefit the educational broadcasters, the Act burdens more than just the cable entertainment programmers. It equally burdens CNN, C-SPAN, the Discovery Channel, the New Inspirational Network, and other channels with as much claim as PBS to being educational or related to public affairs.
Even if the Government can restrict entertainment in order to benefit supposedly more valuable speech, I do not think the restriction can extend to other speech that is as valuable as the speech being benefited. In the rare circumstances where the government may draw content-based distinctions to serve its goals, the restrictions must serve the goals a good deal more precisely than this. See Arkansas Writers' Project, Inc., 481 U. S., at 231-232; Erznoznik v. Jacksonville, 422 U. S. 205, 214-215 (1975).
Finally, my conclusion that the must-carry rules are content based leads me to conclude that they are an impermissible restraint on the cable operators' editorial discretion as well as on the cable programmers' speech. For reasons related to the content of speech, the rules restrict the ability of cable operators to put on the programming they prefer,
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