Whistleblower Reacts To FCC Clearing The FCC On Supressing Study For Politican Reasons

from the must've-been-some-investigation dept

About a year ago, Senator Barbara Boxer surprised FCC chair Kevin Martin by asking him why a study on the impact of local TV ownership on the news wasn't published. A whistleblower claimed that the FCC had actually ordered the report destroyed because it didn't agree with the political statements those in charge of the FCC were making. Of course, after being confronted about this, Martin agreed to have the FCC's Inspector General (someone who works directly for him) investigate the claim. A few weeks ago, the report came back from the FCC clearing itself of any wrongdoing. Shocking, right? You let the folks accused of being partisan hacks let their own direct reports investigate whether or not they're partisan hacks -- and they come back saying no, of course they're not partisan hacks. Matthew Lasar writes in to let us know that he interviewed Adam Candeub, the original whistleblower. Candeub had been an attorney at the FCC in their media bureau (which produced the report), but has since left the FCC and is a law professor. He refused to take part in the FCC's investigation, knowing that it wasn't going to fairly portray the situation. Despite staffers telling the Inspector General that they felt they had been told to lie if they wanted the report to see the light of day, the IG still didn't find the FCC at fault. Candeub doesn't sound too surprised, and notes that the whole thing was political -- and it's ridiculous to believe that the FCC didn't suppress the report for political reasons. He also notes that academic researchers are now retracing the steps that were done by the original FCC researchers, suggesting they were doing things correctly -- unlike what the FCC implies. I realize it's all politics at some level -- but shouldn't an organization like the FCC be most focused on what's best for communications policy, not on furthering a party line?

Filed Under: fcc, local news, politics, suppressed reports