FCC Boss May Be In Hot Water Leaked memo suggests looming hearing for Martin Tipped by nasadude 
Congress recently started investigating FCC boss Kevin Martin, sending him a letter (pdf) last month demanding a wide variety of documentation from the agency. Martin's tendency to rush meetings, leak information, pick on the cable industry and his support for the elimination of media consolidation laws have put the FCC boss under fire from all fronts, and both parties, for various reasons. The Washington Post has obtained a memo saying Martin will soon be forced to defend himself before a hearing, which suggests the inquiry may have dug up dirt: The memo to Dingell and Stupak said the investigation is ongoing and proposed holding hearings on the findings in June. According to the memo, more than 30 current and former FCC employees were interviewed, along with telecommunications industry representatives and private citizens. The memo was the first indication that the investigation, launched in December, has turned up material to support complaints against Martin. Of course this could also just be a lot of smoke and little fire. Martin's in a tough popularity spot, having annoyed Democrats, Republicans, FCC employees, consumer advocates and companies like Comcast -- all for various reasons. About the only group he hasn't fully annoyed are the lobbyists at AT&T and Verizon, who've seen good fortune under his watch.
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 | | Good! Couldn't happen to a better jackass. | |
|  |  MikePremium,Mod
join:2000-09-17
Pittsburgh, PA | Re: Good! I see a presidential pardon in his future.
He's in federal holding for 6 hours, max. Bonus - and he will complain about it. | |
| | |  funchordsHelloPremium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA
kudos:5 | Re: Good! This is a management hearing, not a criminal one. He is being accused of pushing his agenda with high priority while letting important issues wane.
But I agree with the "waste of time" comment. He likely loses the big seat in 7 months, regardless.
He's not a bad guy -- I've read his writings and I can see his rationale. His lax regulation style often means he becomes a fire-fighter. He would be better off to start with a consistent framework and then build policy within it as needed. Instead, he avoids the framework and -- without boundaries -- the issues and confusion just runs rampant.
As far as Cable vs Phone, I don't get why people don't see what happened!?! Phone was highly regulated, and he's relaxed that. Cable was unregulated, and he's tightened that. His latest action on the Skype issue is consistent with how he handled wireline broadband policy in 2005 -- show me a problem first, then we'll put in regulation. Otherwise, we'll just watch from a distance.
That wouldn't be my choice, but it's not irrational.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- Hillsboro, Oregon
HTTP is the new Bandwidth Hog...
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| | | |  KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | Re: Good! He certainly hasn't fostered new competition in the sector and he's sat back and let it consolidate. | |
| | | | openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
kudos:2 | said by funchords:show me a problem first, then we'll put in regulation. Otherwise, we'll just watch from a distance.That wouldn't be my choice, but it's not irrational. Why introduce additional regulation and bureaucracy if it isn't required? I like the concept of self-regulation until it begins affecting balance, then apply incremental governmental regulation for course corrections. | |
| | | | |  elwoodbluesElwood BluesPremium
join:2006-08-30
HarperLand
 ·Cybersurf Intern..
| Re: Good! It's not so much of an issue of more regulation, but really doing your job.
In Canada, the CRTC(our FCC) has sat on it's hands or simply rubber stamped whatever the industry wanted.
We have ISP's that charge through the roof, throttle everything under the sun, and impose low caps.
When it comes to Broadcast there are 2 major players, one minor and the public broadcaster., all this in the last 5 years or so.
As for Martin,he's just going what Dick (err George) has told him to. | |
| | | | | | openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
kudos:2 | Re: Good! said by elwoodblues:It's not so much of an issue of more regulation It's a potential issue if the regulation isn't required. My point is that regulation has its place and if it isn't needed, then we shouldn't be asking for it for no reason. That's one way to screw something up and make productivity and growth more difficult.said by elwoodblues:In Canada, the CRTC(our FCC) has sat on it's hands or simply rubber stamped whatever the industry wanted. Assuming that's true, then that's a failure of the regulatory body to maintain the balance that I referred to. | |
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| | | | funchordsHelloPremium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA
kudos:5 | said by openbox9:said by funchords:show me a problem first, then we'll put in regulation. Otherwise, we'll just watch from a distance.That wouldn't be my choice, but it's not irrational. Why introduce additional regulation and bureaucracy if it isn't required? I like the concept of self-regulation until it begins affecting balance, then apply incremental governmental regulation for course corrections. Like I said, that's rational. However, the cost is having to reign in those events that resulted in course corrections. The longer you wait, the more entrenched and difficult the problem becomes.
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Robb Topolski -= funchords.com =- Hillsboro, Oregon
HTTP is the new Bandwidth Hog...
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| | | | | | openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Alexandria, VA
kudos:2 | Re: Good! Sure. But you run the risk of over regulating, insufficiently regulating, or regulating the wrong thing if you regulate a problem that doesn't exist. I can see pros and cons either way....I'm just a free market economics kind of guy  | |
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| | And in the end.. A few hundred million dollars worth of taxpayer money will be spent on people moaning and groaning with no real result. Isn't this always the case with these sort of hearing? The wheels of the government turn very very slowly. They are better at talking about things than ACTUALLY getting stuff done. I don't care what party you vote for, it's the same for both. As per Martin's future, I don't really like the guy personally. I think he's been a tool to this administration way too much. | |
| | | | Re: And in the end.. I agree he's been a tool...but for whom, I don't know. One thing I think we can all agree on is that he didn't put this country on a path towards a decent broadband policy at all!
But what scares me is that each one of the presidential candidates has NOT shown much interest or knowledge in this field either. So will this be "meet the new boss, same as the old boss"?
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"Anything worth having is worth cheating for." WC Fields | |
| | | | | Re: And in the end.. It is clear, he works for Klein: the best telco tool there is!  | |
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| | Just call him Mr Telco Finally someone is doing something about this guy. I wonder how much money he did make from the Telcos and payoffs and stocks and such.
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I am the Coyote | |
| | | | Re: Just call him Mr Telco said by Realtech23:Finally someone is doing something about this guy. I wonder how much money he did make from the Telcos and payoffs and stocks and such. Congress won't even bother to step up to "do something" about the White House ignoring its subpoenas for records and you believe that "something" will be done to "investigate" the telco errand boy Martin? What planet are you living on? | |
| | | | | Re: Just call him Mr Telco The one that would HOPE eventually its an even playing field. Yeah I know I must be on another planet to think that but you'll have that.
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I am the Coyote | |
| | | | | The wheels of justice hard at work... I am not sure what they are working towards or if any work is actually getting done. They are just working hard at something. There lies the motto, look busy, to fool the people. | |
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 rudnickePremium
join:2004-10-23
Rantoul, IL
kudos:1 | Job He's just securing his job with the Telco's after his term is up. | |
| | | Really... this is the pot calling the kettle black. | |
| | | | Re: Really... He be smoking that pot lol. | |
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| | Circus Time He finally rattled enough cages and caused enough commotion to anger the "Ring Masters".
They will crack the whip, he"ll do some "tricks" and everyone in the audience will get sick after consuming the "sugary concessions".  | |
| | | Kevin is in trouble now, arr there be Rough Water ahead !!
Mr. Martin |
Does he sink or swim.  | |
| | | WTF is CONGRESS gonna do anyway, like these jackasses have some kinda magic powers....
Hell, let's work on something that will matter...
Like opening up drilling off our coasts or stopping illegals from running rampant on our rights for Christs sake.
Give me a break!  | |
| | | | Re: WTF Like drilling for more oil and raping our natural resources will solve anything? How about instead of believing this crap about oil and the lack there of, we actually try to wean ourselves from it and find other sources of energy. AH yes, that would be far too easy. I forget but one car company just recently said they had a car that could run efficiently without gasoline. Instead, they chose to market the hybrid. Go figure. It's people like you who think in short term. Short term, ripping up more land, drilling (risking oil spills), etc might yield us a little lower prices but not for long. Eventually, we'll back back to square one. All the more dependent on the middle east because we figured X supply would hold us over and guzzled it down quickly. Personally, I'd rather see us actually trying to solve our quagmire than make it worse. That's my 2 cents. | |
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