Free Republic

WASHINGTON - President Bush has chosen Kevin Martin, a member of the Federal Communications Commission, to head the agency that has recently gained notoriety for clamping down on indecency in broadcasting. Martin, who has been an FCC commissioner since 2001, replaces Michael Powell as chairman. Powell, son of former Secretary of State Colin Powell, had announced in January that he was leaving this month after four years in the top post. The White House was to officially announce Martin's appointment later Wednesday, said an FCC official who declined to be named ahead of the announcement. The FCC has taken on...

Michael Powell's decision Friday to step down as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission is a blessed event. It paves the way for a successor who can bring consistency and stability to revive telecom policy -- and competition and lower prices to benefit consumers. Powell, 41, took over the FCC four years ago, pledging a free-market approach. Many key decisions, however, promoted the opposite. For example, after saying that he would end the double standard on indecency (which leaves cable and satellite networks largely free of government censorship), he instead slapped huge fines on radio and TV broadcasters and...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 - Shortly before becoming chairman of the Federal Communications Commission nearly four years ago, Michael K. Powell said it was time to eliminate the double standard that allowed the government to subject broadcasters, unlike their competitors in cable and satellite television, to indecency and other speech regulations. At the time, Mr. Powell received a Freedom of Speech Award for advancing what broadcasters and civil liberties groups viewed as a courageously principled position. Now, he is being harshly criticized for significantly expanding the indecency rules. He blames a quest for higher ratings for the "increasing coarseness" of programming...

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Communications Commission released its long-awaited rules governing competition in the local-telephone industry Thursday, over six months after initially approving the measure in a 3-2 vote. But the release signals less the end of a process than the beginning of litigation that has been promised from virtually every corner of the industry. Suits are likely from the Baby Bells, which were looking for more relief from obligations that they lease their networks at low cost to competitors like the local arms of AT&T Corp. and MCI, as well as competitors who will say that deregulation of...

The FCC Under Fire The commission's controversial loosening of media ownership rules meets steadily rising opposition Populist outrage is threatening to undo a controversial effort by the FCC to loosen restraints on media megaliths. In the Senate last week, seven Republicans joined 28 Democrats to schedule a rare "resolution of disapproval" to overturn new FCC rules that would let companies like News Corp. and Viacom expand their media holdings in local markets. Then in the House, defecting Republicans fueled a 40-to-25 committee vote to reverse part of the FCC's action. Now it appears that the chief architect of those...

Former Ku Klux Klansman Sen. Robert Byrd is angry at President Bush - not because he spent taxpayer dollars to pay a congratulatory visit to an aircraft carrier bearing the men and women who helped defeat Saddam Hussein. But instead, says one civil rights leader, Bryd's pique was provoked because the ship in question bore the name of America's Great Emancipator, Abraham Lincoln. That's the contention from Kevin Martin, spokesman for the African-American Republican Leadership Counsel, who served during the Gulf War aboard the USS Lincoln's sister ship. "Senator Byrd has a long association with the Klan that sought to...

WASHINGTON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Dominant U.S. local telephone companies such as BellSouth Corp. will likely invest further in high-speed networks despite a decision that they must continue to share their networks with rivals, Federal Communications Chairman Michael Powell said on Wednesday. The FCC voted to keep rules that require the carriers to give rivals discounted access to their voice networks but lifted sharing requirements on fiber-optic networks in hopes of spurring further investment in high-speed networks and video-on-demand. Powell, who had favored reducing sharing requirements on most voice and data services offered by the carriers but was outvoted...

After months of noisy foreplay, Michael Powell has failed to produce. Today, one Republican and two Democrat members of the Federal Communications Commission forged a new working majority and thwarted their own chairman's plan to strip states of their power - and the four giant Bell companies of their telecom competitors. The FCC decision was important. It means that the process of deregulation, begun with the Telecommunications Act of 1996, supported by every conservative in the House and Senate, can continue. The Bells, the established regional monopolies in local service, have now entered the long-distance business in 70 percent...

Timing is everything, so one adage goes. And action speaks louder than words, says another. The conjunction of the SBC bid for Hughes' DirecTV satellite operation and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell decision to delay a vote on new telecommunications' rules from this Thursday to Feb. 20 may be mere coincidence. Nevertheless the timing provides commissioners an opportunity to mull over how their actions may affect the competitive landscape for decades to come. Washington is a twitter that Powell's decision to delay a vote from today to Feb. 20 results from a bi-partisan compromise proposal by a fellow...

FCC Vote Outside of Meeting Possible, but not Likely The FCC could implement new telephone regulations before its open meeting next Thursday if the five commissioners signed off on the order, but an FCC spokesman said today that is unlikely. "Theoretically items can be voted on without it happening at an open meeting but I don't think it will be the case for this item," the spokesman said. The federal regulator has postponed a meeting (originally scheduled for tomorrow) to vote on a proposal that will govern which parts of the local network the Bell operating companies are required...

Civil Rights Leader to Picket 'KKK' Byrd TributeA Washington, D.C.-based civil rights leader said Tuesday that he would "chain [himself] to the construction site" of a ceremonial office being built as a tribute to Ku Klux Klansman-turned-senator, Robert Byrd, D-W.V. "I will not stand idly by and allow the building of a fantasy office for 'a minister of hate' such as Robert Byrd," said Kevin Martin, political affairs director of the African-American Republican Leadership Council. "I am willing to chain myself to the construction site, run the risk of arrest and know I stood on principle rather than remain silent."...

   THURSDAY, January 9, 20039:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. EST / 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. PST... A DAY AT THE RACISTS The Lott Thing!The Byrd Thing!The Je$$e Jack$on Thing!The Sharpton Thing!The Profiling Thing!The Reparations Thing!The Hate Thing!The Thought Police Thing! It's time for theREPUDIATION THINGand we'll discuss it with B.O.N.D.'sJESSE LEE PETERSONand see if he can dissolve the grey areas of spinin the discussion of black and white.  ALSO...   Project21's Kevin Martin!! (aka FR's Trueblackman)  PLUS... Boneheaded Lie-beral QuotesCommie Rat Bastard of the WeekAnna's NEW Waste Of Ink Award All this (and possibly more)on the nextUnspun with AnnaZ CLICK HERE TO LISTEN LIVE!!   Tune in....

Kevin Martin: Black Caucus Fears Senate's Ex-Klansman A Washington, D.C.-based civil rights leader said Wednesday that the Congressional Black Caucus fears the political clout of ex-Ku Klux Klansman, Sen. Robert Byrd, and that's why they haven't demanded his resignation for repeatedly using an ugly racial epithet last year. "The Congressional Black Caucus lives in fear of Robert Byrd," said Kevin Martin, head of African-American Republican Leadership Council, on Wednesday. "They've never condemned him on anything," he told radio host Sean Hannity. Martin contrasted the firestorm of protest that erupted this week over the comments of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott...