Powell to Step Down as Chairman of F.C.C., Officials Say

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Powell to Step Down as Chairman of F.C.C., Officials Say

January 21, 2005
 By STEPHEN LABATON and JOHN O'NEIL



 

WASHINGTON, Jan. 21 - Michael K. Powell will step down
today as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission,
officials there said, ending a four-year term that was
marked by the tightening of standards on decency and
attempts to loosen restrictions on media ownership.

Mr. Powell was appointed to the commission in 1997 by
President Bill Clinton and promoted to chairman by
President Bush in 2001. Associates of Mr. Powell's have
reported for months that he planned to leave after the
conclusion of Mr. Bush's first term. His decision to
announce his retirement today was reported this morning in
an editorial in The Wall Street Journal.

The replacements being considered for Mr. Powell are said
by administration officials to include another Republican
member of the commission, Kevin Martin; Becky Klein, a
former head of the public utility commission in Texas;
Patrick Wood III, the head of the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission; and Michael Gallagher, head of the National
Telecommunications and Information Adminstration in the
Commerce Department.

It was not clear when Mr. Powell would actually leave his
post. 

Mr. Powell, a Republican, brought an emphasis on
deregulation to the commission. The most contentious issue
of his term came with his proposal to relax the rules
limiting how many media outlets one company could own in
any given city. 

The change was supported by big broadcasting and publishing
companies and vigorously opposed by a coalition of smaller
broadcasters and labor, consumer and civil rights
organizations. It passed in June 2003 along a party-line
vote, but was blocked last year by a court that said the
commission had failed to justify the ruling.

Among the broader public, Mr. Powell was better known for
the crackdown on indecency on the airwaves that he led
after the Super Bowl incident in which singer Janet Jackson
bared a breast on live television in 2004.

The fines that followed were something of a departure from
Mr. Powell's reputation when he took over as chairman, when
he was hailed by broadcasters for his position that it was
unfair to impose standards on them that their competitors
in cable and satellite television did not face.

Mr. Powell said the fines were made necessary by an
"increasing coarseness" in programming driven by a quest
for ratings, while the broadcasting community called him
the most heavy-handed enforcer of speech restrictions in
decades. 

Mr. Powell faced criticism from conservatives as well for
not being even tougher, including from another Republican
member of the commission, Kevin J. Martin.

Mr. Martin was also behind a rare defeat for Mr. Powell,
when the commission turned down his proposal in 2003 to
deregulate the local telephone market.

Mr. Powell, 41, is the son of Secretary of State Colin L.
Powell, who is also stepping down from his post. The
younger Mr. Powell followed his father's footsteps by
joining the Army, but went to law school after being
severely injured in a jeep accident in Germany.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/21/business/21cnd-powell.html?ex=1107327851&e
i=1&en=26e99b199bfcf1c7


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