FCC: Fronting For Corporations?

[marmar]

from In These Times:


FCC: Fronting For Corporations?
Business is cheering Obama’s nominee. That’s bad news if you like your media diverse and your Internet free.

BY Joel Bleifuss


President Obama nominated Tom Wheeler the next chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and Grant Seiffert, the president of the Telecommunications Industry Association enthused: “He has the proven ability to transcend a broad range of industry perspectives to reach balanced outcomes.”

Indeed. Wheeler, 67, is the former head of—and chief lobbyist for—both the National Cable Television Association and the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association. Or, as Obama spins it, “He’s helped give American consumers more choices and better products.” (He’s also helped give the president more than $245,000 in bundled contributions for his re-election campaign.)

For Wheeler’s views on the challenges confronting American media, we have his blog “Mobile Musings.” It’s remarkable how one man can write so much (59 posts since 2007) yet say so little. Particularly when it comes to two critical media issues.

The first such issue is net neutrality, the idea that the nation’s information highway should be free of toll booths. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://inthesetimes.org/article/14974/fcc_fronting_for_corporations/

[Buzz Clik]

1. I believe that Democratic Underground should simply adopt this theme:

"We, the contributors to Democratic Underground, believe with all our hearts that the President of the United States and Congress have sold themselves 100% to corporations. The US Supreme Court and all governments agencies are similarly acting only on behalf of large corporations."

By making that our credo, we could save a lot of time bitching about EPA, USDA, FAA, FCC, FBI, DoD, DoD, ASPCA, DHS, and all the rest. It would be understood.

[marmar]

2. Or we could just ignore the said "bitching" posts that some find so upsetting.

N'est-ce pas?

[Buzz Clik]

3. When you post this stuff, prepare yourself for the good and the bad.

It's part of the process.

[marmar]

4. I don't really care who posts what in response.....

..... I just find it amusing when people complain about "complaining" posts which contain info they don't want to read.

[Nye Bevan]

5. I support anyone who can stop those calls from "Card Services". (nt)

[KoKo]

6. Choosing a former "Lobbyist" for this appointment was a red flag.

I tried to find something positive of why Wheeler would be qualified to "serve the people" as FCC Head when the appointment was announced. Googling on my own pretty much came up with the background stated in this link in the OP.

Thanks for the post about this.

[onenote]

7. I still hold out hope that Wheeler could surprise us

His stints as trade association head for the cable and cellular industries came when those were the "upstart" industries fighting against established, entrenched corporate giants. The cable industry had fewer than 15 million subscribers when he was head of that industry's association and the cellular industry only had 11 million subscribers when he ran that industry's association.

[KamaAina]

8. You typed a question mark at the end of that sentence by mistake.