Arguing that serious students of telecommunications policy must consider the impact that government deregulation will have on virtually every aspect of communications policymaking, this paper examines two goals that deregulators have deemed essential: convincing regulators that the marketplace is synonomous with public interest, and demonstrating that the marketplace is sufficiently competitive to warrant extensive deregulation. Among the topics considered in the paper are the following: (1) the rhetoric of deregulation, (2) the history of government regulation, (3) the economics of deregulation, (4) competition in the telecommunications area, (5) cross-media ownership, (6) the growth of cable television, (7) efforts of broadcasters to reduce competition, and (8) the relationship of government to business. The paper concludes with a list of questions about deregulation and a warning that the biggest threat to public policy lies in the confusion of the marketplace with the historic principle of the public interest. (FL)