Defiant FCC Chief Refuses To Delay Vote

[babylonsister]

Defiant FCC Chief Refuses To Delay Vote
by Jim Puzzanghera

WASHINGTON — Facing growing criticism of his agenda and tactics, a defiant Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, refused senators’ requests Thursday to delay a vote next week on his plan to loosen restrictions on owning a newspaper and broadcast station in the same city.

Martin endured three hours of aggressive questioning from the Senate Commerce Committee, with members accusing him of rushing to help big media companies at the public’s expense.

“If you move ahead and do it, you’re a braver man than I am,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). She accused Martin of having an “obsession” with changing media ownership rules that was distracting the FCC from the more important issue of guiding the nation’s 2009 transition to digital television.

Amid complaints from within the commission and Capitol Hill about a lack of openness at the FCC, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.) called for Congress next year to overhaul the agency’s procedures and alter its deregulatory bent.

“I am becoming increasingly concerned that the FCC appears to be more concerned about making sure the policies they advocate serve the needs of the companies that they regulate and their bottom lines rather than the public interest,” Rockefeller said. “We cannot allow this to happen.”

more...

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/12/14/5821/

[robinlynne]

1. Then do something god damn it. Stop with the ok you can ruin our country, then

we'll try to change it back later shit. It didn't work with FISA. It didn't work with the supreme court. it didn't work with war funding. It didn't work with subpoenas. And it didn't work with Mukasey.


Guess what, capitulating to the far right on every whim, while saying you don't want to, does not work.

[walldude]

2. So now the FCC chief has more power than the Senate?

What is this ask him to delay the vote shit. Don't ask him TELL HIM! For fucks sake, who makes the rules around here...

[SeattleGirl]

3. Apparently it's not the Senate.

:grr:

[walldude]

6. Hmm..

"Facing growing criticism of his agenda and tactics, a defiant Kevin J. Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, refused senators’ requests Thursday to delay a vote next week on his plan to loosen restrictions on owning a newspaper and broadcast station in the same city."

This statement is why I assumed it was the Senate...

[Hidden Stillness]

4. Rockefeller was Actually Great Here

The Rockefeller statement was possibly the best part of the whole hearing. Rockefeller was very angry, described the kinds of things that people in the country complain about and get no answers on--from violence and degradation in media to lack of local news, from high cable prices and lack of service to "dumbing down" of all political coverage and discourse--and ended with a comment that the FCC has totally lost its way from the 1930s and its charter, where it is supposed to represent the interests of the American people and democratic society, and has since become a distressing and infuriating lobbyist for any and every corporate merger and profit scheme. Rockefeller proposed re-authorizing the FCC with a new mandate. This could be great.

[LiberalFighter]

5. Schedule hearings with his required attendance on same day of his vote

If he is late the Senate should detain him in the dungeon in the basement.