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FISHRGAME
_____________
Feature
Stories -
052005-05
/ Week tviNews
Convergence
WEEK IN REVIEW
• • TOP STORIES CONVERGING INTO -
February
Todays Puzzle
-- Powell to Resign
as FCC
Chairman
• • WASHINGTON -- Federal
Communications Commission Chairman Michael K.
Powell, who championed digital technology but whose
four-year tenure was marked by controversies over
indecency on the airwaves and the easing of media
ownership restrictions, said.
In 1997: Michael Powell was appointed an
FCC commissioner by then-President Clinton. Four
years later, Bush made him chairman.
January 2001: Michael Powell is appointed as
chairman of the Federal Communications
Commission.
March 2002: Cable modem is declared an
"information service," allowing broadband
technologies to avert regulations imposed on
telephone services.
January 2003: The FCC rules that mobile
satellite operators could seek authority to offer
cellphone and wireless Internet and data services
around the globe using radio frequency bands now
set aside for communications satellites.
February 2003: Powell's proposal to free the
regional Baby Bell phone companies from having to
lease their lines to competitors at discounted
rates is foiled.
June 2003: The FCC votes to change five key
media ownership rules. The FCC approves letting TV
networks own local stations reaching, in total, 45%
of the national audience, up from 35%. The rules
also allow ownership of a newspaper and a TV or
radio station in the same market and as many as
three TV stations in the largest cities. The
proposed changes were blocked by a federal appeals
court in September.
June 2003: The national "do-not call"
registry is started to protect consumers from
telemarketers.
November 2003: The FCC mandates that
consumers be allowed the option to retain their
phone numbers when switching mobile-phone
providers. The rule went into effect nationally in
May 2004.
January 2004: Powell asks Congress for a
tenfold increase in the amount of fines the panel
can levy against broadcasters for indecent or
obscene programming.
March: A federal court strikes down
regulations that require local phone companies to
lease their networks to competitors at discounted
rates.
March: The FCC rules that rock star Bono's
use of a sexual expletive during the 2003 Golden
Globe Awards was "indecent and profane."
April: Powell warns television broadcasters
that they risk a congressional crackdown if they
resist plans to convert to digital TV quickly. The
FCC proposal would require broadcasters to air only
digital TV channels by 2009 and return their analog
airwaves to the government.
June: A U.S. appeals court largely bars the
FCC's bid to relax media ownership rules.
August: The FCC approves technology that
allows TiVo subscribers to send recorded television
shows over the Internet.
September: Viacom's CBS is fined $550,000
for showing the baring of singer Janet Jackson's
breast on the Super Bowl halftime show. Viacom has
vowed to fight the action.
October: The FCC rules that the Baby Bells don't
have to share their networks for residential
customers with rivals.
November: Viacom settles a series of FCC
indecency actions, some stemming from remarks made
by radio host Howard Stern, for $3.5 million.
November: Internet phone service is exempted from
state rules.
November: The FCC rejects the idea that
allowing pay-TV subscribers to pay only for
channels they want would lower cable bills.
December: The FCC votes to stop regulating
wholesale local phone rates in the residential
market by early 2006.
MORE STORY
Federal Communications Commission
Chairman Michael K. Powell, who championed digital
technology but whose four-year tenure was marked by
controversies over indecency on the airwaves and
the easing of media ownership restrictions, said
Friday that he would step down in
March.
• • Powell sent a one-page letter
Friday morning to President Bush, who appointed the
former Army officer and antitrust lawyer to the job
in 2001.
• • In a statement, Powell, whose
departure will follow closely the exit of his
father, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, said he
had "completed a bold and aggressive agenda" but
added that his resignation came "with a mixture of
pride and regret."
• • There was no immediate word on
a successor, though sources close to the
administration say the front-runner is Kevin J.
Martin, a Washington lawyer and current FCC
commissioner who worked as an advisor in Bush's
2000 campaign. The FCC, which is charged with
regulating interstate and international
communications by radio, television, wire,
satellite and cable, has five
members.
• • White House spokesman Ken
Lisaius on Friday praised Powell for helping
advance Bush's goal that all Americans have
affordable high-speed Internet access by
2007.
• • "He has shown a strong
commitment to expanding the reach of new
communications technologies and services," Lisaius
said.
• • But others said the
41-year-old Republican would leave a jumbled
legacy. Adam Thierer, director of
telecommunications studies at the libertarian Cato
Institute in Washington, said Powell's largely
deregulatory philosophy was often hard to reconcile
with his fervor for cracking down on sexually
explicit content.
• • As for the rules broadcasters
are currently expected to follow, Thierer added,
"utter confusion reigns."
• • Jeff Zucker, president of NBC
Universal Television Group, echoed that sentiment
Friday when he said at a gathering of the
Television Critics Assn. that Powell's departure
was an opportunity for new leadership that he hoped
would translate into more consistency in the FCC's
response to the indecency
issue.
• • "The key thing that we're all
looking for is some uniformity," said Zucker, whose
network came under fire from the FCC for an
expletive uttered by U2 singer Bono on an awards
show. "Right now, it has appeared that everything
has been dealt with so indiscriminately and
differently in each case…. If everybody
understood what the rules were, that would be a
step in the right
direction."
• • From his very first news
conference as chairman, Powell had been a lightning
rod for criticism. In 2001, he likened low-income
Americans' lack of access to the Internet and other
costly technologies to his inability to afford a
luxury car on a bureaucrat's salary. He described
the phenomenon as the "Mercedes-Benz
divide."
• • Powell never seemed
comfortable in the public spotlight, and his
brusque style could rub people the wrong way. Bruce
Fein, a former FCC general counsel, said Powell's
biggest failing was that he was a poor consensus
builder.
• • The commission has often been
fractured, with 3-2 votes on important matters, and
Powell's often unyielding stance has done little to
bring unanimity.
• • Although some touted Powell as
a visionary for embracing new technologies, Fein
said the chairman too often had worked around the
edges of issues instead of tackling major problems
head-on, such as the complicated way telephone
companies compensate each other for completing
calls.
• • AT&T Corp., for instance,
was paying more than $9 billion a year to local
network owners to complete calls, an amount the
long-distance giant claims far exceeds the actual
cost of performing the
service.
• • Powell has made considerable
progress in other areas, however, including
prodding the TV industry to make the switch from
analog to digital television
broadcasts.
• • When he became chairman,
relatively few digital TV programs were on the air,
and only a tiny percentage of homes had digital
sets. Today, close to 10% of all homes have some
kind of digital set, and hundreds of hours of
digital programming are offered every week by
broadcasters, cable operators and satellite
services.
• • A self-described gadget
junkie, Powell has tried to foster new
technologies, especially wireless, broadband over
power lines and voice over Internet protocol, a
technology that ships voice in packets, much like
e-mail, over high-speed lines. He also urged
telecommunications executives and broadcasters to
transition more quickly to the sharper video and
compact disc quality sound of digital
TV.
• • Powell has made strides on
behalf of consumers, spearheading a national
"do-not-call" registry for avoiding telemarketers
and standing up to phone companies by allowing
consumers to keep their cellphone numbers when
changing service
providers.
• • But those highlights were
often overshadowed by high-profile clashes with
Congress on the one hand and 1st Amendment
advocates on the other. In 2003, a bipartisan
uprising of lawmakers opposed Powell's attempts to
allow media conglomerates to increase their
ownership stakes. The plan, which drew a record
520,000 written comments from the public, has been
blocked by a federal court. The agency is weighing
whether to appeal that
decision.
• • Powell found himself again at
the center of controversy last year, when he drew
the ire of broadcasting when the FCC began levying
more fines for the airing of indecent
material.
• • Viacom Inc.'s CBS was hit with
a $550,000 fine for airing a Super Bowl halftime
show during which pop singer Janet Jackson
partially bared her breast. Then, in November,
Viacom agreed to pay a record $3.5 million to
settle several outstanding FCC enforcement actions
against the conglomerate's TV and radio stations,
including those who broadcast shock jock Howard
Stern's show.
• • Stern, who features an altered
photograph of Powell with devil's horns on his
website, told listeners Friday that it was "a great
day" for broadcasting.
• • "Thank God he's gone," he
said. "But God help us with what's
next."
• • The FCC received more than 1
million indecency complaints in 2004, most of them
in reaction to the Jackson incident. Also last
year, the FCC recommended more than $7.7 million in
fines for indecent programming, a huge increase
from 2003, although many of the biggest fines are
under appeal.
• • Appearing on CNN on Friday,
Powell said the FCC's role in the indecency debate
was dictated by Congress, not by the whims of any
particular commissioner.
• • "We're not on a crusade that
we invented," he said. "We're enforcing a
congressional statute which has wide bipartisan
support."
• • He noted that complaints from
the public have mushroomed in recent
years.
• • "In 2002, we had 111 total
complaints about television," Powell said. "Just in
the first half of 2004, we had 550,000 --
approaching a million for the year. We have a duty
and a responsibility to respond to those
complaints."
• • Andrew Schwartzman of the
Media Access Project, which lobbies for more strict
limits on media consolidation, said he believed
Powell was frustrated by how indecency came to
dominate his tenure.
• • "I can tell you, he …
resents the fact that he was the one stuck having
to defend the commission's policy," Schwartzman
said.
• • Powell's departure was first
revealed on the Wall Street Journal's editorial
pages Friday. Praising Powell's tenure, the paper
called on the Bush administration to cut regulatory
red tape to encourage greater development of
high-speed Internet access and urged the White
House not to replace Powell with Martin, the
Republican FCC commissioner who many expect Bush
will tap to take Powell's place.Commissioners are
appointed by the president and confirmed by the
Senate for five-year terms, except when filling an
unexpired term. Only three commissioners may be
members of the same political
party.
• • If he is named chairman,
Martin will not need Senate confirmation because he
is already on the
commission.
• • Besides Martin, the leading
outside candidates include Rebecca A. Klein and Pat
Wood, two former chairpersons of the Public Utility
Commission of Texas.
• • Wood is now chairman of the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the
longest-serving Bush appointee covering state and
federal terms. Klein, the first Latina to head the
Texas PUC, served in the Medical Service Corps
during Desert Storm.
• • On Capitol Hill, Rep. Diane
Watson (D-Los Angeles) called on Bush to appoint a
new chairperson who "will work to restore and
uphold principles of a free press." She warned that
Powell's deregulation agenda, were it to continue,
could lead to "unprecedented levels of media
consolidation."
• • But other lawmakers urged Bush
to find a new chairperson cut from the same cloth
as the outgoing chief.
• • "Powell's vision of blending
progress in technology with reduced federal
influence over the marketplace was a good
approach," said Senate commerce committee Chairman
Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).
• • As a young man, Powell had
joined the Army, hoping to follow in his father's
footsteps. But in 1987, his military career ended
when he was severely injured in a jeep accident in
Germany. After more than a year of recuperation,
Powell went to law
school.
• • He served as chief of staff at
the Justice Department's antitrust division and
then, in 1997, was appointed an FCC commissioner by
then-President Clinton. Four years later, Bush made
him chairman.
///
• •
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