Former FCC Commissioner Glen Robinson Criticizes Future Of Media Initiative

Former Federal Communications Commission member Glen Robinson has taken aim at the FCC's Future of Media initiative, suggesting the FCC may be trying to force-feed its brand of news and information on the public.

In an essay for free market think tank, The Free State Foundation, Robinson points to the FCC's concluding question among the 42 it included in its public notice on the initiative: "What questions have we failed to ask that we should?" Robinson says the more pertinent question is "Why are you [the FCC] asking all these questions?" He points out that there are already open, official proceedings that [are] dealing with the issues of media's future--ownership rules, localism--without adding "redundant inquiries chasing the same question."