Martin Considering Boston Telecom Party
FCC Chairman Could Hold Public Meeting, Approve Liberty’s DirecTV Takeover, On Feb 26.
By Ted Hearn -- Multichannel News, 2/11/2008 3:12:00 PM
How did that Dave Loggins AM ditty go?
"Please come to Boston in the .... dead of winter?"
Grab your mink underwear, FCC fans, because Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin is considering holding the agency's Feb. 26 public meeting in it-feels-like-two-degrees Boston. Precise location is still unknown because Martin's people weren't doing much more than refusing to deny that a Beantown visit could be in the works.
At the FCC's next public session, Martin wants to approve Liberty Media chairman John Malone's takeover of DirecTV and hand out some cable must carry pork to hundreds of poor, suffering Class A TV stations owners whom Martin wants to reward for their premeditated negligence about the digital TV transition.
After the meeting, the FCC would stage a net neutrality forum, with an emphasis on how to decide when reasonable network management practices have crossed the line to become anticompetitive methods of conduct. The forum's topic should please net neutrality champion Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Telecommunications and the Internet Subcommittee.
At this time of year, a winter freeze could shut down Logan Airport and paralyze the entire New England region, forcing the FCC to remain hard by the Potomac. But Martin is nothing, if not persistent. So don't be surprised if his plan B turn out to be Buffalo.
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