It’s Time To Occupy The FCC!

What do we call a government agency created to manage telephony, internet, wireless, cable, and broadcasting in the public interest, but has been the captive of greedy corporations for decades? We call it the FCC, the Federal Communications Commission. What can we do when corrupt authorities like the FCC utterly forfeit their legitimacy, and just aren’t listening? We can raise our voices. IWe can withdraw our consent. We can occupy their public space, which is really ours anyway.

Federal Communications Act of 1934 [4], the FCC is supposed to regulate the broadcast airwaves, telephony, the internet and cable industries in the public interest. It’s not even a bad joke. For decades, virtually every top level FCC staffer and commissioner has left the through the revolving door [5] that leads straight to lucrative work for the broadcasters, Big Cable, or the telecoms.

FCC Chairman

From

Julius Genachowski

2009 -present

Kevin Martin

2005-2009

Now works at Patton Boggs, a bipartisan DC lobbying firm that represents telecoms, broadcasters, the recording industry and Big Cable.

Michael Powell

2001-2005

William E. Kennard

1997-2001

Currently US Ambassador to the European Union, where he insists that Europe privatize its internet backbone and municipal wifi services and let US cellular carriers in to saddle customers with US style multiyear contracts and penalties.

Reed Hundt

1993-1997

Works for management and private equity firms that represent or own cable companies, broadcasters, the recording industry and blocks of telecom stock.

The FCC is supposed to manage the broadcast frequencies in the public interest. But it grants the enormous, greedy corporations that own most radio and TV stations monopoly licenses to operate their highly profitable businesses upon the scarce publicly owned spectrum with absolutely no obligations to provide local news, local voices or meaningful public service.

Instead, now that that licensees have no use for the frequencies the FCC has begun to permanently privatize them by auctioning them [6] off to telecoms.

The FCC regulates the land line and cell phone industries as well, but not in the public interest. The US has some of the highest cell phone rates in the world, with multiyear contracts and penalties that are illegal in much of the world. In Europe, for example, cell phone customers looking for a better deal can change contracts and companies every month with no penalties or credit checks and keep their existing phones and numbers. The FCC never challenges the arbitrary and deceptive billing practices of phone and cable companies or bothers to educate the public on things like the fact that text message delivery, excluding the cost of billing, costs them absolutely nothing.

We hope that local residents will demand that the broadcast frequency privatization auctions be halted.

We imagine that since the commercial broadcasters, according to the 1934 law, do have a public service obligation, hold their broadcast licenses as a public trust, and have made buckets of money for decades, that local residents will demand that all commercial broadcasters and cable operators be forced to pay the costs of the nonprofit community broadcasters.

Bruce A. Dixon is a member of the state committee of the Georgia Green Party and a partner in Campaign Foundations and YMD Partners LLC., living in Marietta GA. Contact him at bruce.dixon@blackagendareport.com.

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