Ted Hearn

Federal Incommunicado Commission (continued)
August 8, 2007

When contacted, Martin’s spokeswoman Tamara Lipper will sometimes confirm that Martin will attend a conference, if she’s in a good mood. Sometimes she won’t, telling the reporter to contact the trade group involved. Nothing seems to thrill Lipper more than playing juvenile cat-and-mouse schedule games with reporters. Did she learn that from her Bush Administration contacts at her last job, covering the White House for Newsweek?

Just as bad is Martin’s habit of providing little advance notice when he deigns to tell the media that he is making a public appearance. On Tuesday, for example, Martin went to Baltimore to speak at 8 a.m. to the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO).

The FCC notified reporters for the first time just 14 hours beforehand by email. That gave D.C.-based reporters very little time to decide whether they could cover Martin’s speech in Baltimore and still make it back in time to cover the FCC meeting starting two hours later. The only way to be sure of doing both was probably to hitch a ride with Martin. Fat chance.

A long time ago, Martin vowed to do better in this area, but he hasn’t. Asked on Tuesday about his refusal to publish an advanced schedule so reporters had enough time to plan their coverage, Martin huffed that he is keeping reporters properly apprised of his movements.

The third Republican is Robert McDowell, who joined the FCC in June 2005, making him the most junior member. Just weeks into his new gig, McDowell was thrown a hot potato by Martin, who needed McDowell’s support in order to force cable operators to carry multiple digital signals of local TV stations that demand such carriage. McDowell refused, forcing Martin to sideline his plan. McDowell’s lack of support embarrassed Martin, who thought he was on the eve of handing cable its worst FCC thumping in more than a decade.

Asked to explain himself, rookie McDowell, the son of a former journalist for National Geographic, bolted the FCC meeting room, saying he wouldn’t take any questions. He’s loosened up some, having held two press conferences in 14 months. But if you want to talk to McDowell, you mostly need to catch him on the fly, too.

The FCC’s Democrats – Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein – are skilled at keeping the media at a distance. For good reason: Both tend to make extravagant and highly tendentious claims about media ownership, broadband penetration trends, and their faith in the FCC’s ability to manage policy in a way that produces progressive outcomes. Copps and Adelstein become quite testy when reporters demand something more than Democratic Party bromides about Reykjavik having better broadband than Roanoke.

Copps hasn’t had reporters into his office since May 2006. Adelstein can't remember his last press conference.

“We should have you guys in soon,” Adelstein said after the FCC meeting Tuesday.

Posted by Ted Hearn on August 8, 2007 | Comments (0)