Genachowski’s incompetence burns brightly. As of November 18th, while national protests spread, he has spent his time in judicial retrospection—dismantling the bedrock Fairness Doctrine (among others) as suddenly discovered to be “a threat to free speech.” Yet, concerning contemporary free speech issues, his agency is vacant and aimless.
While FCC’s three-month search for BART’s plausible deniability plods, we notice throughout that challenged as they are to ensure both safety and rights, no other U.S. municipality has dared to cut cell phone service. COULD THAT BE BECAUSE RESPONSIBLE POLITICIANS—seemingly excluding BART and Julius’s FCC—KNOW IT IS AN ILLEGAL, DANGEROUS, and INCENDIARY ATTACK UPON FREE SPEECH?
Dear President Obama, I can understand why you would want FCC to just raise money through spectrum sales. But this admittedly under-funded agency is rapidly losing credibility. To say nothing of being oblivious to the challenges of civil media rights and contemporary Emergency Communications, it has so lost focus that local police agencies are now forced to do FCC’s fundamental job—and original raison d’être—of preventing interference to legitimate radio services, for example, from spreading pirate FM stations.
Apparently, Congress somewhat agrees with this criticism. Earlier this year I learned from Rep. Greg Walden’s office that Genachowski’s inexplicable performance was already under investigation by The House Energy and Commerce Committee; which just responded (Nov 16) by crafting legislation specifically targeted to increase transparency and efficiency at FCC. Thus, Mr. President, the next step needed to stem further embarrassment to your administration is for this wireless industry puppet to resign.