FCC pants claims official report

THE FCC is a mismanaged, dysfunctional agency that has abused its power, according to a report prepared by congressional investigators for the US House of Representatives.

The scathing report ripped the glorious reign of Kevin Martin, the agency's Republican chairman, into tiny pieces, set fire to it and then jumped on the ashes.

The report, which was the result of a nearly year-long, bipartisan investigation by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said that Martin had manipulated data and suppressed information in a bid to influence telecommunications policy debates within the agency and on Capitol Hill.

It said that the commission has become politicised and failed to carry out some important responsibilities under Martin's leadership. He undermined an open and transparent regulatory process, micromanaged, demoted agency staffers who did not agree with him and withheld information from his fellow commissioners, the report alleged.

This created distrust, suspicion and turmoil among the five current commissioners, the report said.

A spokesman for Martin pointed out that the committee did not find or conclude that there were any violations of rules, laws or procedures. In other words, being a manager from hell is not against the law yet, even in the US.

Martin will be cleaning out his desk after the White House changes hands, so really there is nothing to see here other than the amusing statement that he was a "a blueprint of what not to do".

However, there are some grey clouds to the upcoming changing of the guard at the FCC. Martin might have been a bastard but he put the fear of god into the likes of Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Cox Communications, cable companies that have had some unusual methods of charging people and 'managing' their broadband networks.

The big cable industry companies have been fighting tooth and nail to prevent Martin from getting his regulatory changes through and have not been pleased with the investigations that the FCC has been carrying out into their operations.

It would be easy to think that this report might be the result of lobbying by the cable companies to influence their chums in Washington.

Gene Kimmelman, vice president for federal policy at Consumers Union, which helped bring attention to the cable pricing practices that have been probed, said that the FCC problems the report cites are not all Martin's fault. He said that the agency has been an enormous problem for years. µ

L'Inq
Sydney Morning Herald