Life Is About to Get Much Harder for Shady Media Moguls and Greedy Telecoms

Posted by Jan Frel, AlterNet at 5:27 AM on January 23, 2009.

A good sign that events are quickly moving away from eight years of rampant greed and disregard for the public interest by media moguls like Rupert Murdoch and greedy telecoms: "President Barack Obama today designated Federal Communications Commissioner Michael Copps as acting chair of the agency."

Copps, who long served as a thorn in Bush's side as an FCC commissioner, has unswervingly fought against the media consolidation and giveaways we had the misfortune of experiencing in the Bush era. He's been profiled and praised for years by progressives and public interest groups as a rare voice of sanity these past years on media issues. First good move by Copps that comes to my head: He called for an inquiry into Murdoch's shady buyout of the Wall Street Journal.

FCC watchdog and media reform advocate group Free Press is clapping its hands loudly at Obama's decision. Take a look in AlterNet's archives from the Bush days, and you'll see nothing but solid opposition by Copps to virtually every vile action taken by the Bushies at the FCC, led by Colin Powell's son, Michael. Here's media critic Norm Solomon quoting Copps in 2003:

"I understand they (broadcasters) live in a commercial culture and a business culture. But this is a special industry with a special charge -- administering the public airwaves. Nobody owns these airwaves. There's no TV company or radio company that owns the airwaves. The people of the United States of America own the airwaves."

Obama has picked Julius Genachowski as his nominee to run the commission in the long run. Genachowski shows many signs of supporting key progressive policies, such as Net Neutrality. The FCC is a regulatory agency with limited powers, and it's hard to imagine that it could address all the problems that corporate media and moguls like Murdoch pose to having a well-informed public. Indeed, the FCC has often functioned as an energy sink and distraction from other avenues of media reform (such as creating and distributing independent media). But it's still another very good indication that the winds are blowing that much more in the people's direction.