All’s Well in FCC-Land?

On Thursday, the FCC will have an “Open Meeting.” Usually at such meetings, the FCC announces new rules or modifies old ones.

But Thursday’s Open Meeting will be a “State of the FCC” meeting. The FCC will look back on 2007, and, oh, what a year it was. Every year, the FCC does the same — with the requisite dutiful staff reports to the commissioners that “all is well in FCC-land.”

It’s a glimpse into an alternate reality. Within the confines of 12th Street SW, somehow there is abundant competition and openness where there isn’t — like broadband, wireless service, and, local and national news production.

Check out last year’s PowerPoint fairy tales — and expect the Emperor to be wearing the same clothes this year.

The Real FCC

The real state of the FCC, of course, is far less rosy.

• The real FCC is under investigation by Congress to determine if FCC procedures “are being conducted in a fair, open, efficient and transparent manner.”
• The real FCC has been called a rogue agency by members of Congress.
• The real FCC, according to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, tips off well-connected insider lobbyists about upcoming actions while closing out the public.
• The real FCC continues to preside over a precipitous decline in America’s international broadband ranking.
• The real FCC just gutted media ownership rules against the will of 99% of the public.
• The real FCC crushed public, educational, and governmental (PEG) cable channels with its unlawful reform of local cable franchising rules.
• The real FCC kowtowed to the wireless industry and left consumers under locked and blocked cell phone plans.

To be fair, the real FCC does get some things right. And when they do — like this week’s announcement that they’re investigating Internet blocking and censorship by Comcast and Verizon — the agency deserves praise.

But the real FCC is not a well-oiled, democracy-fostering, competition-producing, public-interest-serving machine. It is broken. It ignores the public and kneels down before Big Media and Big Telecom — especially when it suspects the public isn’t watching. Even the most glowing reports and fanciest PowerPoint presentations cannot hide the fact that this FCC has often done more harm than good.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 8:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.