Weekly column: Why the FCC should die

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://news.com.com/2010-1028-5226979.html

Why the FCC should die
June 7, 2004, 4:00 AM PT
By Declan McCullagh
 
It's time to abolish the Federal Communications Commission.

The reason is simple. The venerable FCC, created in 1934, is no longer
necessary.

Its justification for existence was weak 70 years ago, but advances in
technology since then have eliminated whatever arguments
remained. Central planning didn't work for the Soviet Union, and it's
not working for us. The FCC is now an agency that does more harm than
good.

Consider some examples of bureaucratic malfeasance that the FCC, with
the complicity of the U.S. Congress, has committed. The FCC rejected
long-distance telephone service competition in 1968, banned Americans
from buying their own non-Bell telephones in 1956, dragged its feet in
the 1970s when considering whether video telephones would be allowed
and did not grant modern cellular telephone licenses until 1981--about
four decades after Bell Labs invented the technology. Along the way,
the FCC has preserved monopolistic practices that would have otherwise
been illegal under antitrust law.

[...remainder snipped...]
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