Watching the Martin Watch

WATCHING THE MARTIN WATCH
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Ted Hearn]
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin held a press conference last Tuesday, just his third formal sit-down with the media in 34 months on the job. He gave reporters just 3 hours notice and walked into the meeting about a half hour late. How the FCC goes about its business under Martin is no longer just chitchat among the Beltway’s broadband intelligentsia. With a penchant for secrecy and as someone exposed as a data manipulator with designs on inflicting pain on the cable industry -- and only cable -- Martin has now invited scrutiny from the last person in Washington, D.C., he needed to antagonize: House Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI). In addition to stirring Chairman Dingell, Martin has sparked renewed interest in FCC reform from Sen. John D. (Jay) Rockefeller (D-WV), who has vowed to block the Senate re-confirmations of FCC Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein and FCC Deborah Taylor Tate while his FCC-overhaul effort is in progress. Sen Rockefeller is interested in bumper-to-bumper renovation, based on concerns that the agency prefers to protect the interests of corporations instead of serving the needs of consumers. Thanks to Martin, Commissioners Adelstein and Tate look finished at the FCC. That is partly because a Democratic Senate is likely to await the results of the November elections rather than give each one five more years overseeing the providers of voice, video and data services to 300 million Americans.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6524092.html?rssid=196