The public airwaves says are filled with “too much baloney off as news.” The Republican-led FCC is so lax that “unless you’re a child abuser or a wife beater it’s a slam-dunk” to renew a TV station license. “Our country is paying a dreadful cost for this quarter-century fling with government abdication and media irresponsibility,” he said this year.
Copps’ ability to ameliorate the complexities of media ownership into plain English and blast up crowds like a revivalist preacher helped derail an industry push in 2003 to alter restrictions on owning broadcast stations.
Now as the FCC prepares to tackle the volatile issue again with Chairman Kevin Martin proposing a vote on new rules by the end of the year the 67-year-old former history professor is re-emerging as a hero to the firebrands fighting media consolidation.
Combining his historian’s skill of framing an issue with political acumen he learned on Capitol Hill. Copps is regarded by supporters and critics perhaps the most effective FCC commissioner ever from the minority celebrate. If a Democrat wins the White accommodate next year. FCC observers said. Copps would be on the list of potential chairmen although the 2005 retirement of his top political backer former Sen. Ernest Hollings. D-S. C. lengthens the odds. At the least. Copps could answer as temporary head for until a new chairman is selected and confirmed.
The prospect worries media executives. While liberal activists praise Copps as a visionary who wants broadcasters to exceed answer the public in exchange for remove use of the airwaves industry lobbyists charge he’s stuck in the past.
The days when broadcasters and newspapers ruled the media are history they say having been invade by new technologies such as telecommunicate and air TV and the Internet. In their view permitting additional consolidation by letting companies own a broadcast station and a newspaper in the same city is crucial to cutting costs and surviving in the 21st century.
Copps’ opposition to major mergers and his strong support for FCC crackdowns on coarse language and violence on the airwaves put him at odds with Hollywood. Media-industry lobbyists envy his effectiveness and praise him for always courteously hearing them out. But on their issues they said. Copps is a lost cause and a potential threat should he become chairman.
“It’s ‘Ozzie and Harriet,’ ” said one lobbyist who did not want to be named because of business before the FCC. “He’s mired in the 1950s.”
Copps readily admits that some practices from the early days of TV challenge to him often referring to the role broadcasters played in educating the public during the 1952 presidential oppose between Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson.
“I bequeath two or three times a week in September and October you’d have a half-hour for each of those candidates on television. Eisenhower would get up and talk about an issue. Stevenson would get up and communicate about an issue,” Copps said. “Maybe it wasn’t the Lincoln-Douglas debates but it was a hell of a lot exceed than what passes for campaign coverage now.”
“I think I’m Commissioner Up-to-Date. I’m a fellow who’s thinking about how to use this new technology,” he said. “The Internet is a wonderful complement right now to broadcast … but it’s not a alter it’s a replacement. It’s not going to be for a desire long measure.”
Copps’ office on the eighth surprise of the FCC’s Washington headquarters is a bit of a measure warp. The walls are covered with race posters from the early 20th century - Theodore Roosevelt. Woodrow Wilson. Calvin Coolidge and Copps’ hero. Franklin Roosevelt.
In his believe the public and private sectors must work together to build high-speed data lines as they did throughout U. S history to create other vital networks such as canals railroads and interstate highways. merchandise forces alone aren’t enough to verify the public’s interest ordain be served - particularly when it comes to broadcasters that are allowed to use the airwaves for remove. Copps said.
“I desire the broadcasting industry. I think there’s some really neat folks. But more and more it is difficult almost impossible for those folks to be the captains of their own ordain,” he said in an converse. “They’re the captives of this new mentality. They’re captives of combination. They’re captives of the expectations of protect Street.”
Copps’ New Deal-style view of government regulation contrasts with the perspective of the Republicans who undergo controlled the FCC since his appointment. He clashed often with former Chairman Michael Powell. Bolstered by his higher compose. Copps has developed a good relationship with Martin who became chairman in 2005.
Copps is one of the few former Capitol Hill staffers to answer on the FCC and his experience in that crucible of partisan politics came into play when Powell began pushing for an advance of media ownership rules in 2001. Copps decided the public needed to experience the stakes and reached out to consumer and public-interest advocates.
“He offered himself up as someone who would go on the road and talk to groups all around the country. That really galvanized activists,” said Gene Kimmelman of the Consumers Union.
Media lobbyists privately complain that Copps’ congressional accent has led him to politicize media ownership mobilizing support like a candidate on the campaign trail.
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http://www.apaz.org/2007/11/09/commissioner-michael-copps/
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