FCC Chairman Genachowski is Far from Plodding, Cautious

[Commentary] According to a story in the Washington Post, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is an overly cautious and plodding regulator who has accomplished little in his tenure that everybody in Washington believes is coming to an end. That's not the way I see it.

For better or worse (and most broadcasters would say worse), Chairman Genachowski has had an extraordinary, if not revolutionary, impact on at least a couple of the key industries he oversees. He set in motion a policy that, if allowed to play out over the next several years, could transform the mediascape and broadcasting's place in it. It was bold, it was radical and it came out of nowhere in the early days of his administration. I am speaking, of course, of what's come to be called the incentive auction, by which the FCC hopes to recapture a huge swath of TV spectrum and turn around and auctions it off to wireless broadband carriers that will, in Genachowski's way of thinking, put it to much better use.