Group Asks FCC Commissioners To Promise Not To Go Work For AT&T If They Vote To Approve T-Mobile Merger
from the name-and-shame dept
Following the story of FCC commissioner Meredith Atwell Baker joining Comcast as a lobbyist just a few months after approving that company's buyout of NBC Universal, the group Free Press is asking the remaining FCC commissioners to take a pledge that, if they vote to approve the AT&T/T-mobile merger, they won't then take a lobbying job with AT&T. Of course, if any of them took the pledge, it's not clear what's to stop them from then breaking the pledge...
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Why Bother
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More to the point, in order to understand the complex decisions required to be a regulator, you need to be intimately familiar with what you are regulating in order to make good decisions. These people are so specialized that, if they leave their regulating positions, there's not anywhere they'd be more qualified to work for than the companies they're regulating. If they couldn't, it would severely hamper the future employability of the regulators. That would make it career suicide, and we'd end up with far less-knowledgeable people people making important decisions. That's the argument, anyway.
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No one is saying that Baker isn't allowed to find employment in the telecom industry. What we're saying is that she shouldn't find employment as a lobbyist with the company that she just approved a mega-merger for.
I highly doubt anyone would have made a stink about Baker had she gone to work for Verizon, or had she gone into R&D with Comcast instead of lobbying.
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... The woman is an idiot ... "What's an antenna?" ... R&D for her translates as Really Dumb.
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The problem with this view is that while FCC Commissioner Michael Copps is certainly very knowledgeable about the communications industry, you can bet dollars to pesos that Comcast wouldn't hire him. And you'd be naive if you didn't think that had something to do with his vote against the Comcast/NBC merger.
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That makes me think. I've been hearing people talk about term limits as a measure to reduce government corruption. As I see it, it would increase corruption. If they aren't eligible for re-election, then it behooves them to legislate in favor of their next employer. That is, unless you can't take employment with companies that you've had legislative dealings with during your term. So in the instance of the FCC, vote on Comcast/NBC merger and you can't take a job from them. Although, you can take a job from ABC, CBS, or FOX assuming you haven't also had to regulate them directly as well.
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So yes, abolish the FCC we really don't need them anymore. Then people can dump the cell phones and get wireless IP phones that don't need a carrier, just an IM client installed.
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So . . .
HM
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I agree with that completely.
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So then approving the merger was part of their plan to get hired? Premeditated corruption.
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Suggestion In Bad Taste
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Instead of working for AT&T, just become a supplier
After FCC Commissioner such-and-so votes for AT&TMobile merger, they leave the FCC and become a vendor that sells AT&T much needed specially treated toothpicks.
Or they become a donation supported writer that regularly posts on TechDirt articles that mention AT&T.
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Lots of luck..
In lots of countries this would be called bribery, but here it is just business as usual. It's not just AT&T; look at who Comcast hired after their merger got approved.
Politics in the U.S. is just plain dirty once you get past the lowest elected levels. Honest politicians do not get re-elected if they ever even manage to get elected in the first place. The people who work for the various commissions need something to fall back on if they are booted.
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what's to stop them from then breaking the pledge
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