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FCC Chairman: a Former Cable Lobbyist Who Helped Kill the Comcast Merger
An anonymous reader writes: After Friday's news that the Comcast/TWC merger is dead, the Washington Post points out an interesting fact: FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, who was instrumental in throwing up roadblocks for the deal, used to be a lobbyist for the cable and wireless industry. "Those who predicted Wheeler would favor industry interests 'misunderstood him from the beginning — the notion that because he had represented various industries, he was suddenly in their pocket never made any sense,' said one industry lawyer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he represents clients before the FCC." The "revolving door" between government and industry is often blamed for many of the problems regulating corporations. We were worried about it ourselves when Wheeler was nominated for his current job. I guess this goes to show that it depends more on the person than on their previous job.
The pool of people who are knowledgeable about the practices, challenges, and daily business realities of the telecommunications industry (or any industry for that matter) is a small one indeed; good luck finding someone in that pool with the experience necessary to lead an agency the size of the FCC who hasn't worked for the industry at one time in his or her life.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
The main concern is for those people other than him. I admire Mr. Wheeler for the ability to separate his job from himself, but not everyone has that kind of willpower. I think that after working with the industries for so long, the majority would have been in favor of the merger - I thought that this man would be among them when he first was nominated, and while I am very happy that he proved me wrong, I'm pretty sure the majority of those in his position with his history would not.
"Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
... "Those who predicted Wheeler would favor industry interests 'misunderstood him from the beginning — the notion that because he had represented various industries, he was suddenly in their pocket never made any sense,' ...
Given that Mr. Wheeler is more of an outlier than a norm, it made a lot of sense to presume Mr. Wheeler would favor industry interests.
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I, for one, am glad he broke from the mold.
Federal law gives the FCC the exclusive authority to regulate the use this industry, and the FCC has used this authority to write regulations that explicitly permit anyone to use the unlicensed merger as a countersuit (AND mount antennas no larger than one meter) despite any armchair position, regulation, or contract to the contrary (such as zoning laws or landowner covenants forbidding external antennas). Comcast neither Time are EXPLICITLY mentioned in the cited FCC memo clarifying the regulation.
I don't know about you, but I find it somewhat disconcerting that it's so surprising a federal regulator DOES HIS JOB that we get a news article about it. The idea that this proves there is nothing to worry about with "revolving door" policies is naively optimistic.
It goes to show that just because a person lobbied for a group, it doesn't mean that they are dishonest or unethical. I think Wheeler has shown that. At this point, I think the "revolving door" just stopped revolving for him! :-)
internet conspiracy
If you think Wheeler nixed this out of the goodness of his heart, or a jolt of moral courage, you're naive. He wanted this merger to go through, but there was so much opposition he couldn't make it happen without everybody involved looking really bad.
ahahaha insightful? Best moderation ever?!?!?
Not directly - one of Obama's best fundraisers was a Comcast EVP - but by throwing the WH behind net neutrality in the strongest possible way, and showing the FCC he wanted active, pro-consumer regulation of the cable and ISP industries, according to a NY Times post-mortem.
Here on Slashdot there's a tendency to say that there's not a dime's worth of difference between the two political parties, those curmudgeonly posts generally get modded up. But there *is* a difference. Sometimes.
> I guess this goes to show that it depends more on the person than on their previous job.
You're reading too much into this. He might have opposed it because it was the wrong thing, and at age 70 he knows they can't touch him. He also might have opposed it because the writing was on the wall, or because others in the industry didn't want it either. Journalists should ask his industry mates what they think of his decision because without that fly on the wall perspective, you cannot tell his true motivations, or his future intentions.
"What is Mateship? In its most benign form, it is simply friendship. But mateship is often more than benign. Mateship often implies a joint monetary interest. Mates form companies, award contracts to each other, appoint each other, protect each other and honour each other.
One of the principal returns to mateship is a job. Mates appoint each other for three main reasons. First, a mate can be relied upon to act with fear and with favour; fear of offending their mates and favour towards their mates. Secondly, when a mate is appointed, an obligation is created, an obligation that must be repaid. An appointment of a mate is a contingent future claim on that mate. Thirdly, mates appoint each other because it minimises their risks. Mates are mates because they often think the same. With a mate, there are fewer risks.
From "Courage without Mateship"
Comcast previously promised the city they would provide service for their entire monopoly area if this went through. I'm still stuck with ISDN and per minute charges since Comcast doesn't offer service to my block and CenturyLink's fifty+ year-old wring is too poor to support DSL. I work in IT for my company and setup VPN equipment so I've been in the homes of nearly all of our employees. Only a tiny fraction of them have faster than dial-up or ISDN. It's sad just how slow access is in the Settle area. Yes, CondoInternet offers gigabit Ethernet in about fifty buildings in the area, but that's a tiny portion of the number of buildings in a metro area that has a population of about five million.
After hearing this news yesterday about the merger being dead, I signed a lease to move into a building with faster than ISDN access at the end of the month, but it is going to cost me about $1k more per month in rent. About $600 (as a guess) of that is because of the exclusivity of fast access here. It's a nicer building, but if I didn't have to have faster access then I wouldn't be so limited on my choices of where to move to.
Victory for the consumer!
Even a broken watch is right twice a day. Just because he made a good decision once doesn't mean that he'll make a good decision every time, or even most times.
The revolving door isn't a non-issue just because one person did something right for a change.
I don't think he really had much choice but to support killing the merger - too many of the right people was against it. However keep watch and see what he gives them in return over the next couple of years.
the damage caused by the worst president in modern history will undoubtedly be felt for generations. Of course, we don't expect you to be man enough to admit that, so, like anything else you have to say, your hissy fit will be ignored.
I don't know what he's talking about. I am servicing extended family with a large variety of phones (mix of apple, android and wp8 devices) and apart from android's tardiness you can see here and there, there are no "reliability" issues. In any case, I didn't have to restore any of the phones (few iPhone 6's included).
... because TWC is a dead man walking.
The Internet is going to make TV as interesting as radio.
Comcast is going to have to adjust its business model and TWC is no longer a good fit.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
This doesn't suprise me. I can't easily find the source ATM, but I read that he was part of a startup back in the day, and his company got screwed over by some giant company that crushed it. So he's probably been holding a grudge this whole time. Being a former lobbyist means he knows all the games; being a former start-up owner means he also knows the pain of the unfair near-monopoly advantages from the front lines.
Okay, let's be honest here.
The guy was put under an electron microscope the second this hot issue came up.
Had this not been as controversial as it was, I SERIOUSLY doubt that he or the issue would have had that kind of all-seeing scrutiny.
In many cases, skulduggery requires apathy and/or ignorance from the general public.
The Comcast/TWC merger had a few octillion candle power focused on it from all directions.
You had consumers going "FUCK NO!" by the millions.
You had reportage going "FUCK NO!"
Hell, you had POLITICIANS going "FUCK NO!"
Had he rubber-stamped this merger, all manner of people would have been howling for blood. He'd be removed from his position, and the ensuing legal and political inquiries would have essentially ended his life and neutered any prospect of future employment.
So, with pretty much EVERYONE standing over his shoulder (with club in hand), he was FORCED to play it straight.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Out of all the Americans with security clearances over the last two decades only a few whistleblowers have demonstrated any wisdom. Of them,the most note able three are Manning, Snowden, and John Kiriakou. Manning never ran an organization, so no idea about her. Snowden and Kiriakou had climbed the corporate / government hierarchy.
We need Snowden or Kiriakou as president to make amends worldwide.
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May be he is not a dingo after all.
The spirit of Thomas Becket is not dead!
If wheeler was not using his network or had a poor network, then the revolving door argument is thin or non existant. But on the other hand with highly networked guy ? Sure. That is a concern. People going from private to government is not a problem, heck in a way one of my sister did it. No, the problem is : do you have a big network and does this network influence your job.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
At least in the synopsis no mention is explicitly given to the initial "solution" Wheeler was backing, Internet Fast Lanes. That would have killed Net Neutrality and given the big ISPs just what they wanted.
It was not until a ton of public pressure forced Wheeler to change course. I'm glad Tom Wheeler came around. But he didn't do that on his own. Let's not forget that Wheeler was initially the revolving door shill everyone expected him to be.
Maybe he'll be more amenable to his former employer, Charter Communications, when they go for a merger with Comcast (already being hinted at).
A person in the FCC with past in the industry can be biased in favor of their previous employers in some ways, and not so biased in others.
In other words: the bias can be unintentional or subconcious and systemic ---- For example, it can lead to certain ways of thinking about certain policies ; However, in extreme situations, they will not overtly side with their past employer when it would be obviously to unfair degree against the interests of whom you are supposed to serve.
A good outcome out of a few policy definitions cannot definitely affect this for the positive.
It can be very easy to prove bias exists, if you have an extreme enough pattern.
Proving no bias or "fair treatment" not counting more than fair weight to the corporate position of previous employers, in policymaking consideration; would be extremely difficulty (if impossible) to ever establish.