Michael Powell of the FCC
Published May 30, 2003
So while I think Powell has been misrepresented - hopefully by people who misunderstood him rather than as part of a deliberate effort to discredit him or avoid the topic - I still think he is wrong. Hit motives might even be good, but it seems especially ignorant of him to avoid looking at what Clear Channel has done with radio and not see the pattern repeating itself. He pointed out on the radio this morning that Clear Channel still only owns 2300 or so radio stations out of more than 16,000 stations in the country. That seems a bit like he is looking very very carefully to find the silver lining that he's just sure be around this storm cloud somewhere.
(This story also appears on W6 Daily.)
- Michael Powell of the FCC
- Published: May 30, 2003
- Type:
- Section: Politics
- Filed Under: Culture: Media
- Writer: Phillip Winn
- Phillip Winn's BC Writer page
- Phillip Winn's personal site
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You should file that as a comment with the FCC. They are taking comments through 5 pm ET today and even after that this link will also send it to your Reps. (next stop for this is congress - I'm not sure legislation overturning the rules will pass the house and Bush might veto anything).
You can listen to the full Powell interview.
Thanks, Steve! I had filed a very brief comment quite a while ago, but I did file this piece sans opening paragraph just now, too.
I'll try to make time to listen to the full interview this weekend, I just caught about three or four minutes of it this morning. Michael Powell sounds like someone who honestly believes he is doing the right thing, but is sincerely mistaken. The worst kind. :(
Excellent job, P
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Of course, a more ardent libertarian might argue that the FCC shouldn't have monopoly powers to begin with, and then there would be no problems, but I see a couple of problems with that. One is that there is then no restraint at all on the power of those with money. They buy the most powerful transmitters and transmit over the top of everybody else. The other is that we didn't used to have an FCC, and the American people asked President Hoover for one to be created to counter the chaos that ruled radio at the time.
I should read Peter Huber's book to see if he addresses those issues.