FCC Chairs: Politics, Not Policy, Extended Newspaper/Broadcast Combo Ban

[alp227]

Source: Broadcasting & Cable

Former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt says the Comcast/NBCU merger is a vertical one and doesn't see any problems with it; former FCC Chairman Michael Powell says the Supreme Court has been "irresponsible" in not giving the FCC more guidance on indecency enforcement; and former Chairman Kevin Martin says his one policy regret is not getting to do more about cable's prices and bundling of service.

And they all agree that the only reason the FCC did not get rid of broadcast-newspaper crossownership rules was politics, since the all agreed they ought to go. Powell said the market was corrupted by those political calculations and their impact on outcomes.

Those were just some of the observations from the three, gathered for a roundtable discussion for C-SPAN's Communicators series (http://www.c-span.org/series/communicators.aspx).

Read more: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/458233-FCC_Chairs_Politics_Not_Policy_Extended_Newspaper_Broadcast_Combo_Ban.php

[PSPS]

1. Que?

Since when does anyone not already corrupted by our fascist state not "see any problem" with a vertical monopoly? Those have always been anathema to the American way of life ever since the trust busting days of Standard Oil and Paramount Pictures.

Also, why decry the inability to eliminate the broadcast-newspaper crossownership rules? The watering down they've already had done to them is also anathema to the American way of life. There should be more diversity in media ownership, not less. Yes, that may have been "politics," but any such decision should be. Otherwise, the bushbots in the FCC would have eliminated them entirely, making even more of what is in the media subservient to the anti-american values of Murdoch and his ilk.

[Bitwit1234]

2. The country is going to fiscal hell and people want to

slap fines on people for having short skirts, not wearing shirts, pants too low, bathing suits too sexy. NOW THIS IS WHAT IS THE REASON THE TEA BAGS EXIST TO PROMOTE DECENCY. Next think women will wear burkas and veils and men will have to wear robes.

[lib2DaBone]

3. The real "indecency" is the fact that Republican Money controls our media...

..the FCC is in shambles. Bill Clinton signed media de-regulation in 1996 at the behest of his Republican friends and devastated radio/TV and any chance of a fair news reporting in the United States.

What we have today is no better (and probably not as good) as Pravda.

[depakid]

4. +1

Thus far, the current administration seems (at best) disinterested in this.

Maybe after Democrats have their asses handed to them, that will change- but I doubt it.