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Obama names two to FCC Review Team

T

TheBigA

Radio & Records reports that the Obama transition team has named University of Michigan law professor Susan Crawford and the Wharton School assistant professor of legal studies and business ethics Ken Werbach to lead the FCC Review Team.

Reading up on Crawford, she is an ardent Obama supporter who is a deep interest in technology issues. Interesting that she hails from the same state as FCC critic Sen. John Dingell. He is the one who said "The FCC is broken," and has been investigating FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.

Werbach has a strong interest in the internet and telecom policy.

Neither have published strong opinions about broadcasting.

I think the appointment of these two supports my opinion that Obama has little interest in promoting either of the two Democratic Commissioners to Chairman, and will look outside the agency for someone with a broader view of telecommunications, and the ability to be a unifier rather than divider. If Professor Crawford has spoken with Dingell, she knows there needs to be a change at the FCC.
 
I've been reading Susan Crawford's blog to get a sense of her views on the FCC and broadcasting. Lots of interesting comments, including one where she says it's a contradiction to be for both net neutrality and limits on media ownership. Her logic is that concerns over the future of the internet imply the irrelevance of traditional broadcasting. Conversely, if one wants to preserve diversity of media ownership, that implies the unimportance of the internet. In another opinion, she said this: "I personally am not as upset as many of my colleagues about the idea that mass-media sources are becoming more concentrated - let the dinosaurs huddle in the snow! - but the sheer ad hocery of the entire enterprise is hard to take."

This is someone who will bring fresh eyes to a very tired and beaten FCC.

I also discovered that the "Ken Werbach," identified in the R&R story, is actually Kevin Werbach. I found his "werblog" and am reading it now.
 
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