We just mentioned the William Safire editorial calling for a rally against the apparently-inevitable FCC deregulation of media ownership rules. It seems as though everyone BUT mega media and the three Republican FCC Commissioners are against the loosening, but big media opinion seems to beholding sway - why is that??

Maybe this is one of the reasons:

Vegas. Rio. 'Frisco. Paris. The Big Easy. Over the past eight years, Federal Communications Commission officials have taken 2,500 business trips to global tourist spots, most of which were paid for by the media and telecommunications companies the agency oversees, according to a study to be released today.

....FCC officials accepted $2.8 million in free trips, mainly to industry conventions, academic symposia and technical forums. The top destination — Las Vegas, with 330 trips — is the site of many media industry conventions, such as annual gatherings put on by the National Association of Broadcasters. The second-most popular destination for FCC officials was New Orleans, with 173 trips, followed by New York (102 trips) and London (98 trips), the study said.

The NAB paid the most, spending $191,472 on trips, the study said, followed by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association ($172,636) and the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association ($149,285). Last November, a group of technology firms paid $2,646 to fly FCC Commissioner Kathleen Q. Abernathy to a two-day conference in Montpellier, France.

....The Center for Public Integrity describes itself as a 40-person, nonpartisan watchdog group. The FCC study was funded by a $300,000 grant from the Ford Foundation and $100,000 from the Open Society Institute, run by millionaire philanthropist George Soros, Lewis said. The group has released such travel studies in the past, which are based on FCC public filings.

...."I'm not crazy about having the industry pick up the tab, but I think it is the second-best option we have in tight fiscal times like now," the study quotes Robert Pepper, chief of the FCC's office of plans and policy, as saying. "The other option is for us to just stay home. That doesn't benefit anyone." [Washington Post]

I am not suggesting that these are flat out bribes - it's much more complicated than that, but this kind of symbiotic cozy relationship between regulator and regulatee inevitably leads to both the reality of empathetic thinking and at least the appearance of undue influence. Interesting timing on the part of the study.