Open thread for night owls: Regulating the companies they want to work for

At Threat Level,  David Kravets writes FCC Members: Don?t Become AT&T Lobbyists After Approving Merger:

A media-reform group is demanding each of the FCC?s four commissioners publicly pledge that they won?t take a lobbying job with AT&T if they approve its proposed merger with T-Mobile.

Departing FCC commissioner Meredith Atwell Baker resigned her post last month to become the  top lobbyist for the merged Comcast-NBC, just four months after she approved that merger. The departure of Baker, who exits Friday, is being examined by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Craig Aaron, president of Free Press, says the revolving-door between the FCC and the industries it regulates creates grave concerns ?about the public?s ability to trust in the integrity of the actions of the Federal Communications Commission.? On Thursday, he wrote chairman Julius Genachowski and commissioners Michael J. Copps, Robert McDowell and Mignon Clyburn and urged them to take a public vow that they won?t go to work for AT&T after reviewing the merger.

?We now live in a climate where the public has to ask their public servants not to work for the companies that they?re supposed to regulate,? he said in a telephone interview.

Right. Well, good luck with that. A worthy project, to be sure. But it's like trying to hold back a pyroclastic flow with sandbags.

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At Daily Kos on this date in 2003:

It's official:

U.S. communications regulators on Monday narrowly approved sweeping new rules that will allow television broadcasters to expand their reach, despite fears about reducing the diversity of viewpoints.

The Republican-led Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to allow the broadcast networks to own television stations that reach a combined 45 percent of the national audience, up from 35 percent. ...

"I have heard the concerns expressed by the public about excessive consolidation," FCC Chairman Michael Powell said ahead of the vote. "They have introduced a note of caution in the choices we have made."

There's a lot at stake people. Let's not forget that. The entire Left will need to unite and take back our government, lest we see our message drowned out by the ruthless Right-wing Wurlitzer.

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Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/qL9EistSNZs/-Open-thread-for-night-owls:-Regulating-the-companies-they-want-to-work-for

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