White House Nominates Two New FCC Commissioners

[alp227]

Source: B&C

The White House has nominated Jessica Rosenworcel and Ajit Pai to be the next commissioners on the Federal Communications Commission.

Filling one Republican vacancy and one Democratic vacancy-to-be won't change the balance of the commission, which will go from a 3-1 Democratic majority to a 3-2 majority.

Rosenworcel, Senate Commerce senior communications counsel, and Pai, a former top FCC adviser, had been the leading candidates for the empty FCC seat vacated by Republican Meredith Attwell Baker (Pai) and the vacancy that will be created by the departure at year's end of Commissioner Michael Copps.

Rosenworcel will be succeeding her old boss. She was a legal advisor on competition and Universal Service and then senior legal advisor to Copps before exiting in March 2007 to join the powerful Senate Commerce Committee as a top communications advisor to Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.). Before advising Copps, she was a staffer, including legal counsel to the bureau chief of the Common Carrier bureau, so she is well versed in the broadband and Universal Service reform issues the FCC is currently focused on.

Read more: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/476018-White_House_Nominates_Two_New_FCC_Commissioners.php

[russspeakeasy]

1. That should take care of the "jobs problem".

[Bombtrack]

2. Anybody know their stances on net neutrality?

[fascisthunter]

26. great question

[No Elephants]

3. Dare we hope?

[GeorgeGist]

4. 3+1=4, 3+2=5

Did someone forget to carry the bum?

[jayfish]

5. President Obama Nominates New FCC Commissioners

Source: CNET

Democrat Jessica Rosenworcel and Republican Ajit Varadaraj Pai, who each have experience working at the FCC and on Capitol Hill, have been nominated to fill vacancies left by Michael Copps, a Democrat, and Meredith Attwell Baker, a Republican who left earlier this year to take a job with Comcast.
Rosenworcel currently works as an adviser to Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. Previously, she worked for Copps as an adviser at the FCC. If confirmed, she will replace him on the commission. Copps has served as an FCC commissioner since May 2001. His tenure will end in December.

Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20128424-266/president-obama-nominates-new-fcc-commissioners/

---

WTF is up with this balance BS? You can bet your arse that if this was a Republican President both nominees would be Republicans. Way to get absolutely nothing accomplished.

EDIT FOR IGNORANCE

[Vincardog]

6. Do you think Obama is on our side?

[TomCADem]

15. Yes. Obama's NLRB Appointees Most Pro-Union In Decades

[Vincardog]

21. How about Arnie?

[No Elephants]

33. Why pick on Arnie? There has been an abundance of objectionable nominations

by President Obama.

IMO, anyway. Then again, I am very slightly left of center, according to some online poll I took a few years ago.

I am sure center right folk have a different opinion than mine.

[Vincardog]

50. Why pick on Arnie? Because both my parents were teachers and I hate the way this administration is

working to destroy Public education for private gain.

[No Elephants]

31. The same cannot be said of many of Obama's other appointment, though.

Unions are contributors to Democratic political campaigns, but I'm sure that had nothing to do with anything.

[unionworks]

7. the two former advisors left

The FCC to get jobs with the worst fking media monopoly in radio. Gee you think that might be motivation for them to kiss comcasts ass and let right wing hate radio get away with inciting violence? Wait- Obama said he was going to bring back fairness and free speech, right? (Crickets)

[former9thward]

8. You are wrong.

The law requires the agency to be balanced. There are five commissioners. Three D and Two R. Under R Presidents it is 3 r and 2 D.

[jayfish]

9. My ignorance has been exposed.

Apologies all around.:pals:

[No Elephants]

30. Not so fast. Please see Reply 29.

[No Elephants]

45. Please see Reply 44 too, as Reply 29 fell into a two party trap.

[valerief]

10. Why couldn't it be 3 D progressives? nt

[former9thward]

13. That would require a different kind of President.

[boppers]

28. See #8.

It would require a president who could get away with breaking the law.

[No Elephants]

34. Reply 8 is an incorrect statement of the law, though, and, yes, a Commission of five

people can have three progressive (whatever the hell that word means) Democrats instead of 2 or 3 conservative Democrats.

[No Elephants]

42. Bingo. See also, Reply 41.

[No Elephants]

36. Please see Reply 29. Within those parameters, and subject to the term for which a

given Commissioner is appointed, legally, it could be three members of the Communist Party and two members of the Socialist Party.

At least in theory. Getting Senate confirmation, however, would be another story.

[No Elephants]

44. Too late to edit my Reply 36, but it fell into a two party trap.

The law is that a maximum of 3 of the five commissioners can be from the same Party. In theory, you could have five commissioners from five different Parties, or five genuinely unaffiliated Commissioners or any combination that does not result in four or five of the commissioners being from the same Party.

Again, that is subject to the terms, each Commissioner being appointed to a five year term, and to the realities of Senate confirmation anymore.

However, I'd rather have an acting FCC commissioner like Copps than a confirmed FCC commissioner like Chair Genachowski. (Please see Reply 41 for info on them.)

[No Elephants]

29. Not exactly. The Party of the POTUS is irrelevant.

Only three members of a five person commission can be from the same political Party.

That political Party does not have to be the Party of the POTUS, however.

For example, Obama nominated a third Republican to the five member Postal Commission when he could have nominated a Democrat or an indie.

(I checked that when someone made a post much like yours about the Postal Commission, claiming Obama had no choice about the Postal Commissioners he had nominated. Turned out, he did, and he chose a Republican anyway. Howsever, I have not checked yet on the FCC commissioners.)

The other two nominess can be unaffiliated or from any Party, except the the same Party as the other three. For that matter, the five Commissioners can be from five different political Parties.


.

[No Elephants]

46. Too late to edit Reply 29, which fell into a two party trap, but please see Reply 44, together

with Reply 29.

[The Wizard]

11. And Bitch McConnell

cranks up the filibuster machine. The United States Senate has been a perverted institution since McConnell entered the chamber.

[Tsiyu]

12. So what? The FCC are tools and a waste

The FCC is just a money waster.

Turn on your AM radio. Listen all day, if you can.

You will hear NO representation of your views, no information that isn't lies, no respect for the President and horrible names made up for anyone to the left of Fred Phelps.

It's like what would happen if we let the TEabaggers take over OUR park system.

The radio waves are ours. They are merely leased by the 1%. But they do none of their required service to the community. They are 24/7 rightwing microphones. You can't even hear 5 minutes of positive talk about Obama.

So if they are supposed to be of service to America, and America voted for Obama, how can nearly every last AM station spew Obamahate all day, all night? Even Coast-to-Coast is worthless anymore.

OUR radio waves have been handed over to the Republicans with nary a wimper. Obama should disband the FCC. They do NOTHING for the American people but save us from seeing the occasional nipple. That's it.

[unionworks]

16. what you said. n/t

[No Elephants]

39. Please see Reply 35, then Reply 29.

[BiggJawn]

27. +100000

Worthless bunch of shills, greasing the ways for the media conglomerates to "buy" our public airwaves for cheap, then lease them back to us for a huge profit.

And the Kommissars who facilitated this RF land grab?

They're rewarded with cushy executive positions with the media giants they "assisted" when they were supposed to be working for *US*...

[No Elephants]

37. If you support union workers, you might want to see Reply 35, then Reply 29.

[No Elephants]

35. The composition of a commission like the FCC has a little something to do

with the kinds of decisions that the Commission makes about the agency.

You might want to check with postal workers on that point. Their Republican heavy Commission would rather close Post Offices and lay off 100,000 worker, or even better from their perspective, bankrupt the Post Office, than allow the Post Office to raise the price of a stamp from 42 cents to 50 cents.

[Tsiyu]

43. All they really are at the FCC

are "Filler People" as my friend called them. They take up space and make big salaries on the public dime while doing nothing for the American people.

They have handed our airwaves over to bullies, effectively shutting the majority of Americans out of their publicly owned radio stations. The members of our current FCC can all go pound salt. They are useless.

I think government can be the answer to many issues of justice and fairness. The FCC has shown no regard for any but mega 1% corporations for years. That's why blowhards dominate your radio and offer you nothing but hate. So the FCC perpetuates and enables unfairness and injustice, public lies and endless, endless, endless propaganda....get rid of the FCC and start over with an agency that will do more than sit at desks and collect paychecks.

[onehandle]

14. Just a stepping stone to being a Comcast executive. nt

[No Elephants]

40. Or vice versa. Revolving door. One of the nominees worked for Verizon as

inhouse counsel. That does not not necessarily mean he will make decisions favorable to Verizon, or to various communications industry providers, but it does illustrate the revolver door.

A lot of Obama's appointments do. For just one example. check the wiki on the current head of the SEC. No, not the part about her friendship with Madoff. Her work history.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Tsiyu]

19. Yup they pay royalties for maybe a dozen songs

As if the thousands of other great songs out there never existed.

Today's music radio is a joke. I don't know how they still sell advertising, but they pay so little for such pathetic offerings music-wise, their overhead is disgustingly low.

[unionworks]

17. tell it to low power broadcasters

Who could no longer stand corporate domination of the peoples airwaves, triied to start low power stations that actually met a need in the community by playing non-commercial music, and providing educational informative commentary instead of the right wing ranting that spans the bands. They went on the air anyway after FCC refused to give out low power licenses after 911. For their trouble they were raidedby police in swat gear, had their equipment confiscated, and received whopping fines. Bite my ass, FCC and your corporate right wing prick cronies too.

[Tsiyu]

20. They can bite mine as well

The FCC is no friend to the American public.

They cater to the 1%. WE have no say in the matter of OUR radio.

[unionworks]

24. my love for radio

Runs deep. In the 60s as a kid,I would hide under the sheets in the summer with a transistor a.m.. radio, listening in awe as stations from most of the country would come in and fade, to be replaced by new ones as the earth rotated. In the early 70s, free form f.m. was the bonding force that held my group of friends together and distinguished "us" from "them". In between rocking tunes, news of the war, of nixon and watergate, shooting stars fallen from the sky. Morrison, Joplin, Hendrix, Stevie Ray and on and on... seeing them turn all that into something cheap and sick was too much to bear.

[Tsiyu]

32. Same history here, hiding in the '60s with my little handheld.

I'd get stations like WABC out of NY out of my transister and think it was like travelling. Also made me love motown.

Years later I was a talk host/producer/board op. I was running the board when we announced on WSB that Clinton had won. (I forgot to turn up the pots on Zell miller. Wish instead I had kicked him out of the studio). Used to board op for Malloy, and I miss the days when radio hosts sometimes shared MY beliefs.

Now I have a collection of radios, including shortwave. Unfortunately, you need the shortwave to hear any decent radio anymore. Turning on any Americna News Talk station now is like listening to a bunch of bullies and fools, all hating on the PRez, all spouting the same talking points, until you begin to believe it's all the same guy.

They talk about "American individualism" yet they sound like a pack of brainwashed asskissers.

Glad to meet another radio junky! :fistbump:

[Tsiyu]

38. Here's a link you may love

http://www.musicradio77.com/



Lots of old airchecks from back in the day...make me get all nostalgic..... :hippie:

[unionworks]

47. thanks

Sounds like you had some interesting experiences. :)

[Steerpike]

22. The cause of most of our troubles

are not even discussed. We need to break these monster radio corporations and go back to the days of locally owned radio. These license holders have bald faced lied to congress regarding jobs and local content. and, now Obama and the FCC act like the consolidation of all media into a few hands is inevitable.

and the discussion is not even being held or acknowledged.

[unionworks]

23. when our free form

F.m. station went corporate, it was like a dear friend dying. Frank Zappasaid it best- "I'm the best you can get, have you guessed me yet? I'm the slime on your radio and T.V. set! You'll believe the garbage that I feed you, don't call for help, no one will heed you"! Zappa was an artist and a prophet.

[unionworks]

48. exactly n\t

[unionworks]

25. and now I hold

A ham radio liscense. It gets under your skin.

[No Elephants]

41. Now having reviewed the wikis of the Commissioners, I find

1/ Ajit Pai seems promising, apart from having worked for Verizon as inhouse counsel. But, I do not think that, in itself, is necessarily bad.

2/ If Copps, had been willing to stay, I might have re-appinted him, instead of choosing a new Democrat. Copps was the only FCC commissioner who opposed the controversial 2011 Comcast/NBC Universal merger because he believed it did not serve the public interest (duh?).

None of Obama's appointees then on the Commission opposed it. Ironically, Democrat Copps was a two time nominee of Dummya. (Copps used to work for Hollings.)

Failing re-appointment of Copps, I am hopeful that Rosenworcel will follow in his footsteps. And she's worked for Jay Rockefeller, who was among the last one fighting for a public option. So fingers crossed on this one.

As for the rest of Obama's nominees to this commission:

3/ I would NOT have re-appointed Republican McDowell, another Bush appointee, because he opposes net neutrality and the Fairness Doctrine. Thanks to this administration, the Fainess Doctrine is a dead letter now, but I think the things McDowell opposes tell me he mayh be my diametric opposite. Besides, he used to be an FCC lobbyist and I don't appreciate the revolving door. And he was on the Bush team in the Florida recount. And, in general, is a de-regulation guy.

I would have perhaps appointed a different Republican to fill this slot instead of re-appointing McDowell, as Obama did.

5/ Mignon Clyburn, Rep. Clyburn's daughter, and another Obama appointee has a history of public service. I think she may be one of Obama's better appointments.

5/ IMO, the very worst Obma nominee on this Commission is the chair, Genachowski, who replaced Copps, then acting chair. Genachowski academics are impeccable. However.....


He was Chief of Business Operations and a member of Barry Diller's Office of the Chairperson at IAC/InterActiveCorp and executive responsible for the creation of Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting. He earned at least $USD2.5 million when Vivendi acquired Universal assets in 2003.<10>

The above quote cites only a very few of his many corporate credentials, but I thought you might appreciate the Fox Broadcasting connection. Of course, he got approval from the FCC for that.


Plus:

"Initially, Chairman Genachowski promised to rein in companies restricting what people can do on their Internet lines, setting a new tone for the agency.<15> However criticisms have become numerous and increasingly vocal among consumer groups and legislative supporters about his lack of substantive accomplishments to date. In particular, his lack of clear commitment to regulating carriers under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act, as he had proposed, has engendered a great deal of controversy and concern among supporters of Net Neutrality. Correspondingly, those carriers opposed to increased regulation have attempted to suggest regulatory solutions, a process he has been criticized for encouraging.<15>

Genachowski's departure from the FCC seemed a possibility in early 2011, possibly to some other federal post.<16>"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Genachowski

[unionworks]

49. interesting info thanks

GWB came down on low power community stations with an iron heel. I was hoping to see a change in the media in general for the bettter, but not so far.