If you read through Michael Powell's speeches on the FCC Web site, you see a man who talks as if he knows, and loves, technology. He speaks in the hip-geek way of boomtime CEOs, invoking the familiar buzzwords of the new economy. "Empowerment" and "innovation" will be the guiding principles of our "revolutionary" time, he says.

He makes references to literature and pop culture. In one speech in Seattle in April, Powell alluded to everything from "The Matrix" (he said that the tech revolution pointed out a "warp in the Matrix" controlled by big media) to Bette Midler to Brer Rabbit to the philosopher Hegel.

He did acknowledge that the salad days of the Internet revolution are over. "Now we are doing our penance," he said in the speech. "We secretly enjoy watching 25-year-old millionaires crumble and return to jobs at the Dairy Queen dishing out soft-serve cones." But the current slump in the technology economy, to Powell, is only temporary. "The microchip continues to increase in speed at an amazing rate. Memory continues to double and triple, while the cost of producing it all falls. Optical technology surges forward as photons continue to overtake electrons and take us into Mr. Einstein's speed-of-light world. The technology revolution is developing its roots. It is not a fluke. And, it is finally going to change the nature of how communicating and communication policy will evolve from here on out."

Powell was not available to speak to Salon for this article, but there is some evidence that he does have a genuine appreciation for all things new. In January, he made headlines in the trade press when he told an audience at the International Consumer Electronics Show that he loves his TiVo. While Hollywood executives have criticized TiVo for allowing viewers to skip commercials, Powell called the device "God's machine." "I can't wait to walk in the house each day to see what it's recorded for me," he reportedly raved.

But critics of Powell's deregulatory ways say that the chairman's faith in technology is just a ruse, a public justification for what is clearly a gift to moneyed interests. "It's convenient to say what he says. I'm sure he believes this stuff, and maybe this ideology makes Powell sleep better at night," says McChesney, the founder of Free Press, a group that's mounting a campaign against Powell's new proposals. "But this is just crony capitalism. I doubt he's wrestled with the issues I've raised one iota."

That's the chief complaint against Powell's argument that technology is undermining the power of big media -- there is no evidence for it. "This is a fallacious analysis of the media marketplace," says Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a group that has campaigned against media concentration. "The FCC under Powell has not conducted any kind of sufficient inquiry into this matter. They have a Don't Ask, Don't Want to Know philosophy."

The FCC denies this accusation. An agency official called the current rules "unenforceable," noting that courts have repeatedly struck them down. The official said that the FCC's Media Bureau staff, which designed the proposed rules, compiled a vast record of research to back up the regulations in order for the agency to more effectively defend the rules in court. And if critics say that there's no evidence to support changing the rules, the official asked, where's the evidence that says the current rules are OK?

The truth is that the studies commissioned by the FCC point to an extremely complex issue, one that doesn't lend itself to easy answers. How important is the Internet for people's "news consumption"? The studies show that, compared with TV and radio, it's not that important, at least in terms of popularity. But they can't quantify the Web's tendency to inspire the bigger media, or to organize media events -- as occurred in the Trent Lott case and the antiwar movement. Even if most people get their news from the big media firms, those companies are at least pressured, these days, to compete against the media on the Web.

But much of this could be called speculation, because technically, the FCC's plan is a secret. Powell has not waived a restriction prohibiting the public from seeing the few-hundred-page-long document, so "I can't tell you what's in this item that's on my desk, or somebody might prosecute me," says Commissioner Michael Copps. (Powell has defended this process, calling it standard operating procedure for the FCC. Several members of Congress -- including many Republicans -- have asked Powell to be more open about the review, but in a letter to them in January, Powell wrote, "I assure you, again, that if, in our sound judgment, further comment on any specific rule changes in this proceeding is required, we will seek it. I understand that many would appreciate the opportunity to see each specific proposed rule change prior to adoption, but we do nothing radical by declining the invitation.")

Details of the plan have, however, been leaked to some in the press, and the new rules seem to correspond with what many industry insiders have long expected. The proposal would allow a single company to own enough stations to reach 45 percent of the nation's TV viewers, an increase from the current 35 percent. The plan would also let a firm own both a TV station and a newspaper in the same local market, a situation currently proscribed. And firms could now own three TV stations, up from two, in a single large market.

The proposed rules are not as far-reaching as some had feared; Powell had been rumored to want to completely eliminate the national cap, so the 45 percent number -- which reportedly came after intense negotiations between Powell and Kevin Martin, another Republican member of the commission -- has been seen by critics of deregulation as some small comfort. But according to insiders, the Democrats on the FCC played no part in these negotiations; the rules were handed to the two Democrats for the first time on May 12, leaving them less than a month to consider the proposals.

"That's business as usual with the commission," Copps says, "but this issue is too important for business as usual. It could be that we've gotten a bit shoddy. The FCC has abdicated its responsibilities to the public. We have some outreach responsibilities: It goes beyond putting it in the Federal Register where only the lobbyists see it, if you're dealing with something this important."

Recent Stories