The LA Times reports on “Citizens Knocking on FCC’s Door” and actually getting face time with FCC Commissioners “to discuss the arcane rules of national telecommunications policy.”
Just seeing the headline made me think, “Yes, this is the way it oughtta be.” But then reading it raised some suspicions.
The only real citizen the article cites is a self-described housewife who is lobbying the FCC on behalf of mega-telecomm SBC so that her husband won’t lose his job with the company.
See, her husband might be laid off because those pesky competitors expect SBC to make good on the requirement of the 1996 Telecomm Act that the company open acces to its monopoly-built-and-protected-lines to those competitors. SBC claims it will lose profits and have to lay off workers as a result.
It seems a little disingenuous all around, doesn’t it? Especially to anyone who is unlucky to have SBC as a phone company and see first hand how the bastards have decimated Ameritech and generally botched up customer service and broadband Internet in the name of profit.
Even putting that aside, where are the other citizens getting face time with FCC Commissioners? How many former local radio employees fired by Clear Channel? How many citizens pissed off at losing local news from their Sinclair-owned TV channel in St. Louis? None are cited by this article.
So, here we have a case of a journalist turning one example into a trend. It’s a hook in search of an actual story — a case of “let’s make news that’ll make us all feel better.”
Turning up the cynicism up a notch, Tribune Company, owner of the LA Times, would love for the public to believe that the FCC is listening to citizen’s actual concerns. Especially because Tribune’s been pushing the FCC to charge ahead on its media ownership rules review and to shunt every possible opportunity for public input. A story like this one let’s Tribune claim, “See, you don’t need extended comment deadlines or public forums. The public is getting their licks in to.”
Yeah, when they’re bankrolled by SBC or some other conglomerate (or “a retired SBC manager”).
Now don’t you feel better about the FCC?
Leave a Reply