Speaking of the FCC, it looks like the body responsible for radio, TV, cable, satellite and everything in between has been suffering from some serious internal turmoil lately. Kevin Martin, the current FCC Chairman, has allegedly been neglectful with his responsibilities and downright abusive with his handling of affairs. New reports claim that Martin has withheld information from his own commissioners and from Congress, and gave little heed to evidence that some national communications programs were being mismanaged. In fact, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce released a report entitled, “Deception and Distrust: The Federal Communications Commission under Kevin J. Martin.” Sounds more like a movie title than a government committee report! An investigation wasn’t even held before the report was released “due to the climate of fear that pervades the FCC… we found that key witnesses were unwilling to testify or even to have their names become known.”
Apparently, Martin has changed his tune since this whole fiasco and is becoming more transparent to both his commissioners and Congress. One would have to imagine it’s because he has no other choice at this point. The only thing we can really hope for, since this affects all of us as gadget lovers and consumers, is that there is some major restructuring coming down the pipe at the FCC. Even though it looks like the current Chairman is shaping up, if these allegations are found to be true it may be too little too late. The new and incoming administration would likely do well to find someone else at this point.
Thanks, John!
