Kevin Martin to be next FCC Chair according to reports

["Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>]

_______________ Original message _______________
Subject:        Re: [IP] Kevin Martin to be next FCC Chair according to reports
Author: Charles Andres <Charles.Andres () Sun COM>
Date:           16th March 2005 12:7:28  PM

William Safire on Kevin Martin



The Great Media Gulp from the New York Times 5/23/2003

By WILLIAM SAFIRE

WASHINGTON -- The future formation of American public opinion has fallen
into the lap of an ambitious 36-year-old lawyer whose name you never
heard. On June 2, after deliberations conducted behind closed doors, he
will decide the fate of media large and small, print and broadcast. No
other decision made in Washington will more directly affect how you will
be informed, persuaded and entertained.

His name is Kevin Martin. He and his wife, Catherine, now Vice President
Dick Cheney's public affairs adviser, are the most puissant young "power
couple" in the capital. He is one of three Republican members of the
five-person Federal Communications Commission, and because he recently
broke ranks with his chairman, Michael Powell (Colin's son), on a
telecom controversy, this engaging North Carolinian has become the swing
vote on the power play that has media moguls salivating.

The F.C.C. proposal remains officially secret to avoid public comment
but was forced into the open by the two commission Democrats. It would
end the ban in most cities of cross-ownership of television stations and
newspapers, allowing such companies as The New York Times, Washington
Post and Chicago Tribune to gobble up ever more electronic outlets. It
would permit Viacom, Disney and AOL Time Warner to control TV stations
with nearly half the national audience. In the largest cities, it would
allow owners of "only" two TV stations to buy a third.

We've already seen what happened when the F.C.C. allowed the
monopolization of local radio: today three companies own half the
stations in America, delivering a homogenized product that neglects
local news coverage and dictates music sales.

And the F.C.C. has abdicated enforcement of the "public interest"
requirement in issuing licenses. Time was, broadcasters had to regularly
reapply and show public-interest programming to earn continuance; now
they mail the F.C.C. a postcard every eight years that nobody reads.

Ah, but aren't viewers and readers now blessed with a whole new world of
hot competition through cable and the Internet? That's the
shucks-we're-no-monopolists line that Rupert Murdoch will take today in
testimony before the pussycats of John McCain's Senate Commerce Committee.

The answer is no. Many artists, consumers, musicians and journalists
know that such protestations of cable and Internet competition by the
huge dominators of content and communication are malarkey. The
overwhelming amount of news and entertainment comes via broadcast and
print. Putting those outlets in fewer and bigger hands profits the few
at the cost of the many.

Does that sound un-conservative? Not to me. The concentration of power
-- political, corporate, media, cultural -- should be anathema to
conservatives. The diffusion of power through local control, thereby
encouraging individual participation, is the essence of federalism and
the greatest expression of democracy.

Why do we have more channels but fewer real choices today? Because the
ownership of our means of communication is shrinking. Moguls glory in
amalgamation, but more individuals than they realize resent the loss of
local control and community identity.

We opponents of megamergers and cross-ownership are afflicted with what
sociologists call "pluralistic ignorance." Libertarians pop off from
what we assume to be the fringes of the left and right wings, but do not
yet realize that we outnumber the exponents of the new collectivist
efficiency.

That's why I march uncomfortably alongside CodePink Women for Peace and
the National Rifle Association, between liberal Olympia Snowe and
conservative Ted Stevens under the banner of "localism, competition and
diversity of views." That's why, too, we resent the conflicted refusal
of most networks, stations and their putative purchasers to report fully
and in prime time on their owners' power grab scheduled for June 2.

Must broadcasters of news act only on behalf of the powerful broadcast
lobby? Are they not obligated, in the long-forgotten "public interest,"
to call to the attention of viewers and readers the arrogance of a
regulatory commission that will not hold extended public hearings on the
most controversial decision in its history?

So much of our lives should not be in the hands of one swing-vote
commissioner. Let's debate this out in the open, take polls, get the
president on the record and turn up the heat.




David Farber wrote:
> ------ Forwarded Message
> From: Robert Cannon <rcannon100 () yahoo com>
> Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 08:51:31 -0800 (PST)
> To: <dave () farber net>
> Subject: Kevin Martin to be next FCC Chair according to reports
>
> Source: Bush to Elevate FCC's Martin to Chairman
>
> Reuters 
>
> Mar 16, 2005 — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush
> plans to elevate Kevin Martin to head the U.S. Federal
> Communications Commission, a congressional source said
> on Wednesday.
>
> Martin was appointed as a FCC commissioner in 2001 and
> would replace outgoing Chairman Michael Powell who
> plans to leave the agency on Thursday.
>
> An announcement is expected later on Wednesday, said
> the source, who asked not to be named.
>
>
>
> =~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=
> Cybertelecom :: An educational non profit dedicated to raising awareness of
> and participation in federal initiatives that impact the Internet.
>   www.cybertelecom.org     cannon () cybertelecom org
>
>
> ------ End of Forwarded Message
>
>
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------------------------------------------------

Charles Andres
Market Development Engineering
Sun Microsystems
charles.andres () sun com
Voice: (781) 442 0823
Fax:   (781) 442 1520



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