FCC Chairman allegedly abuses power; ignores responsibilities
Speaking of the FCC, it looks like the body responsible for radio, TV, cable, satellite and everything in between has been suffering from some serious internal turmoil lately. Kevin Martin, the current FCC Chairman, has allegedly been neglectful with his responsibilities and downright abusive with his handling of affairs. New reports claim that Martin has withheld information from his own commissioners and from Congress, and gave little heed to evidence that some national communications programs were being mismanaged. In fact, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce released a report entitled, “Deception and Distrust: The Federal Communications Commission under Kevin J. Martin.” Sounds more like a movie title than a government committee report! An investigation wasn’t even held before the report was released “due to the climate of fear that pervades the FCC… we found that key witnesses were unwilling to testify or even to have their names become known.”
Apparently, Martin has changed his tune since this whole fiasco and is becoming more transparent to both his commissioners and Congress. One would have to imagine it’s because he has no other choice at this point. The only thing we can really hope for, since this affects all of us as gadget lovers and consumers, is that there is some major restructuring coming down the pipe at the FCC. Even though it looks like the current Chairman is shaping up, if these allegations are found to be true it may be too little too late. The new and incoming administration would likely do well to find someone else at this point.
Thanks, John!
One has to remember that Martin and the Democrats controlling Congress have been at each other’s throats for the past few years. The Ds want the FCC to reinstate Fairness Doctrine rules and want the agency to offer minorities more opportunities to own broadcast and media assets. The FCC, under Martin, has actually awarded spectrum assets to firms controlled by Democrats such as one of his FCC predecessors, Reed Hundt.
Oh, and Obama has made it clear that he wants to appoint a new FCC chairman. He wants Martin to step down in January. But Martin, whose term hasn’t expired yet, won’t resign until the term ends.
All in all, just a pissing match between politicians.
Expect the FCC to soon investigate whether some members of Congress are doing pay-for-play deals with AT&T et. al.
Wow, another corrupt politician. I’m shocked. really.
-all- politicians, as in 100% of them are liars and corrupt self-serving assholes.
Hey! is this a gadget website or what?
So this guy is the little dick head that runs the show. Get rid of him… wait a second, get rid of the entire FCC– waste of money
We need more regulation and control. Freedom of choice and freedom in general is so passe.
Freedom is passe? What are you a Communist? Go watch Wall-E and see what a utopia the world becomes when all choices are made for you.*
*Granted Wall-E is an animated film, however it does a glaring obvious job of depicting a society that trades away it’s freedom’s for convenience and a general apathetic attitude.
No wonder legitimate mergers (XM/Sirius)were taking forever and @ssholes like Comcast weren’t being investigated in a timely manner with all their unfair practice of “Traffic Shaping”
Is that Haley Joel Osment??
yes………. yes it is
-_-
@TRV$
I was being overly sarcastic. The next 4 years looming upon us are pretty frightening when you take into account big government formula the majority is proposing and the fact the government is claiming ownership of all aspects of our lives, whether through bailouts or absurd regulations.
It’s like we are living in a real world version of 1984…
Yeah maybe now, T-mobile might be able to catch a freaken break. T-mobile got AWS band years ago and there no way in it should take this long to get the green light so they could start using it. Yeah in May we got the ok in New York and the FCC has slowly been giving the OK on other markets but the are still dragging their feet on this matter.
I wonder if this will effect the FCC final decision of the best way to use the white space. Free internet would be awesome so I hope the lies he told didn’t influenced that decision. That would be disappointing.
@stevenG
word. I’m not a fan of Big Brother either.
FREEDOMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmm……..
Im so sure its a good thing since current head off FCC is strongly vs cable companies and i consider that a great!!!
Bring me a la carte cable or bring me death!
Just like Michael Powell [who obviously got his ethics genes from his mommy], the FCC turmoil within continues. With corporate consolidation under the primary rule of extremely conservative ownerships, and their collective control over Kevin Martin, unless the FCC is broken into 1,000,000 pieces, mega-corporate America controls what you read, see, and eat. No big whoop, right?
Long overdue for another Boston Tea Party, I say!
@MadMike: Obviously, you’ve never met, nor campaigned for, a freshman congressman. The system of lobbyists running policy is what is corrupt. The system of always needing to fund raise for the next election is what is corrupt.
You fucking idiot.
Your post is so accurate and so completly describes my view of politicians that I dont need to post a comment
Ben = Living-Breathing OxyMoron
Just some Democrats – not all Democrats – want to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.
For example, I oppose the Fairness Doctrine as unconstitutional, and would like to see the FCC drastically re-purposed for that same reason. Its fines are a blatant violation of the First Amendment. Further details at http://paullevinson.blogspot.com/2007/07/flouting-of-first-amendment-transcript.html
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I’m pleased you derived so much from my comment, backbeat.