Paul Davidson of the USA Today called me last week seeing comment for a story he said he was putting together on the legacy of Kevin Martin’s FCC. I spent roughly 30 minutes on the phone with Davidson and went through a litany of policy issues with him itemizing the “assets and liabilities,” if you will, of the Martin regime, as viewed from the perspective of someone who cares deeply about free markets and property rights. I did not hold back during the interview. I told Davidson in no uncertain terms that Chairman Martin had gone far off the free-market reservation on a great number policy issues.
Anyway, Davidson’s story appeared today and is entitled “FCC Chief Martin Hasn’t Lost Focus on Cable.” It mentions how Chairman Martin has managed to alienate a good portion of the the free-market movement by straying far off the reservation on a great many issues, but it never really gets into the details. To get the complete story, I encourage you to read this editorial that James Gattuso and I penned for National Review as well as an editorial by the magazine’s editorial board that appeared the following day entitled, “Pulling the Cable on Martin’s Crusade.”
And those essays just cover the economic policy failings of the current FCC. To see what has been proposed on the social / speech side of things, see my essay, “FCC Violence Report Concludes that Parenting Doesn’t Work” and “The FCC’s Indecency Bomb.”