When it comes to consumer issues like broadband and network neutrality, the FTC in recent years has spent most of its time nodding dumbly at carriers, allowing them to "self-regulate." The idea that corporations can effectively monitor themselves for bad behavior has been taken to extremes over the last few decades across numerous industries, with some obvious recent disastrous effects. Self-regulation has become a code word for allowing companies to do whatever they'd like.

Of course the agency has engaged in showmanship to convince the public it's really the consumer's best interest they're looking out for. They've spent a lot of time issuing reports on broadband competition that do little but repeat carrier talking points, insisting that the broadband market is highly competitive. They've also enjoyed holding broadband and network neutrality round table hearings that are equally devoid of substance and lacking consumer advocacy participation. Meanwhile, the agency never sees a merger it doesn't like.

There's been some suggestion that Obama's appointment of Democratic FTC Commissioner Jon Leibowitz to the top FTC spot could change things. Will the FTC evolve from a dummy agency that occasionally issues wrist-slap fines on spyware vendors into a consumer-protection watchdog with a little teeth? In an interview this past weekend with CSPAN, Leibowitz (a former MPAA lobbyist) says all the right things, and hints at the FTC playing a bigger role in telecom on issues like privacy, advertising and net neutrality:At around the eleven minute mark he clearly admits to a lack broadband competition, so that's certainly progress from the denial-prone FTC of recent years:Traditionally the FTC hasn't been particularly good at enforcement, and we won't know if Leibowitz is an upgrade for consumers until he starts taking clear stands on policy issues.