So, what's been happening at the FCC since the hearing?

Posted by Mitchell - October 12, 2007 (entry 575)

Okay, naptime over. Besides, we can now scratch the proposal which would change the initials CMA to mean "Chicago Media Abandonment" -- and certainly an abandonment of this website. But we'll work on posting it -- media about the hearing from across the spectrum, text version of public testimony, films and video about the hearing, and the complete audio of the hearing to boot.

What's more for Chicago-area cable TV viewers: on Sunday, October 14 -- CAN TV channel 19 21 will be airing the complete FCC hearing, starting at 9am to 5pm.

Meanwhile, the FCC since the hearing has been buffeted by assorted scandals:

* Our friends at diymedia.net broke the story that incumbent AM broadcasters can already seize FM translators. The FCC hasn't announced this publicly, and the only reason this is public is because some douchebag blogged about it.

* This development came only a week from Government Accountability Office report which revealed that "[where] stakeholders that regularly participate in FCC rulemakings, multiple [corporate] stakeholders generally knew when the commission scheduled votes on proposed rules well before FCC notified the public. FCC rules prohibit disclosing this information outside of FCC."

* When it comes to counting minority and women ownership of America's media, the FCC has forgotten how to count.

* The FCC inspector general clears the FCC from suppressing its own research and getting away with it. I'll take Wolves Guarding Henhouses for $200, Alex. Or I'll take the famous headline in The Onion: "Bush Not Liar, Bush Says"

None of these stories feature any nipples, so it's kind of hard to muster up public outrage. Who's going to cover it, the media? The FCC is increasingly sieve-like for these stories, and I wonder if the corruption continues, and the leaks about this corruption continue, that the FCC and Big Media aren't going to get seriously burned. Cockiness only goes so far, kids. The FCC was cocky in 2003 during the original run of this media ownership review, and JUST LOOK what happened. ;-)

In the meantime, you can savor the memory and the victory of three weeks ago.

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