Subject: [NEXTEL-1] FCC Chairman having 'toFCC chief takes knocks from the left and the right

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 04 Aug 2003 20:32:08 -0400

FCC chief takes knocks from the left and the right

OBSERVERS SAY POWELL'S POLITICAL MISSTEPS HAVE ISOLATED HIM

By Heather Fleming Phillips
Mercury News Washington Bureau
Mon, Aug. 04, 2003

WASHINGTON - It's lonely at the top.

At least that's how it's been for Federal Communications Commission Chairman
Michael Powell over the past five months.

He took the helm of the FCC 2 1/2 years ago, and conservatives couldn't have been
happier. As the first dyed-in-the-wool,
free-market champion running the agency in years, he held out the promise of major
deregulation of phone, media and
broadband markets.

By early this year, though, it became clear things weren't going quite as planned.

In February, a fellow Republican commissioner, in something of a palace coup,
pushed through new phone competition rules opposed by Powell.

Last month, Powell took it on the chin again. After a battle with the two
Democrats on the five-member commission, Powell mustered the support of his two
Republican colleagues to push through major rule changes aimed at relaxing
ownership limits on major media companies.

But attacks came from the right and left, and Congress slapped back. The House of
Representatives voted two weeks ago to roll back an FCC rule, passed in June on a
3-2 vote, that would let a single broadcast company own more stations nationwide.
The Senate is expected to follow suit this fall.

``The left bashes him for going too far, and the right for not going far enough.
He's got to be getting incredibly alienated -- he has no friends,'' said Adam
Thierer, director of telecommunications studies at the libertarian Cato Institute.
``I suspect he has to be seriously considering moving on in the very short term.
And who can blame him?''

After the media ownership debacle, rumors began to swirl that Powell was on his
way out. Time magazine reported that Powell had told the White House that he would
resign this fall, though an agency spokesman adamantly denied the report.

Powell was on vacation last week and unavailable for comment.

Abilities hampered

A well-respected lawyer with a keen intellect, Powell, the son of Secretary of
State Colin Powell, took the FCC's helm amid high expectations.

But industry observers say despite his lawyerly talents, the FCC chief has made a
number of political missteps that have hampered his ability to achieve his agenda.
And Powell, with a reputation for ideological purity, has given little room for
compromise on his interpretation of the law.

Relationships among the five commissioners are strained. (The president's
political party always has a 3-2 majority.) Powell alienated the two Democrats on
the panel -- Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein -- over the media ownership
debate. They had repeatedly asked Powell to hold hearings across the country to
solicit additional input.

But Powell refused, noting that the agency had already received input from
consumers and interested parties. He also denied a request from Adelstein and
Copps to delay a vote on the rule changes, a request which is traditionally
granted for one month.

``I thought we really had a responsibility to go out and engage the American
people,'' said Copps. ``It was a major process error.''

``We did a little bit of injustice to the spirit of how an independent agency is
supposed to run,'' Copps said, referring to Powell's decision not to put the rules
out for comment before a commission vote.

FCC chief of staff Marsha McBride defended Powell's handling of the issue, saying
he was bound by the landmark 1996 law that deregulated the telecom industry and a
court decision ordering the agency to justify its rules in an era of 500 cable
channels and the Internet.

``We tried to create a framework that was flexible to survive biennial reviews
required by law, in a way that addressed the changing media marketplace and took
into account the specific criticisms of the court.''

FCC chairmen can usually count on commissioners of the same party for support in
key battles. But Powell misjudged Commissioner Kevin Martin, a politically
ambitious lawyer himself. The personalities of Powell and Martin clashed, and
Martin cut a deal with the two Democrats on phone competition rules. That left
Powell and fellow Republican Kathleen Abernathy on the losing side of the issue.

Fallout from fight

The bruising battle over media ownership has left Powell particularly isolated.

``I think it has undermined his credibility both intellectually and politically,''
said Gene Kimmelman, senior director of public policy and advocacy for Consumers
Union.

``I think he has abandoned all the principles that he laid out for his tenure at
the FCC. He was going to follow careful antitrust competition policy theory; he
was going to be analytical and fact-driven. What he's done on media ownership
shows the exact opposite,'' he said.

But some observers say the flap on Capitol Hill is simply politics-as-usual in
Washington.

``We're in an election cycle and there are a lot of people that have taken a lot
of shots at him, but that's the price of being a rising star in a political
environment,'' said Scott Cleland, managing director of the Washington research
group the Precursor Group. The White House is backing Powell, threatening to veto
any measure that would roll back his media ownership rules.

Tech support

Powell also gets high marks from tech industry lobbyists. Early in his
administration, he set out to create a regulatory framework that would promote
broadband networks and next-generation technologies.

At the same time the FCC approved phone rules that Powell opposed, it adopted a
key piece of his tech agenda. It freed the regional Bell phone companies from
regulations that had required them to lease to competitors new networks built for
high-speed Internet connections. The tech industry had lobbied heavily for the
rule change, seeing it as a shot in the arm for investment in broadband networks.

Tech lobbyists also praise Powell for his efforts to reform the way spectrum is
managed, so that wide swaths of the nation's airwaves will be opened to multiple
users, promoting new and innovative services.

Now, the sting of the media ownership battle will make it more difficult -- but
not impossible -- for Powell to follow through with his agenda for the remainder
of his term, which expires in June 2007. At the top of his agenda this fall is a
review of regulations being closely followed by the tech industry related to cable
modem service.

Contact Heather Fleming Phillips at [email-masked] or at (202)
383-6020.  
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6453676.htm

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