Hear the Howl of Powell

Hear the Howl of Powell

As his proposed rulemaking gets savaged on all sides, with bi-partisanship that puts the ìpro Iraq warî unanimity to shame, FCC Chairman Michael Powell continues to defend his soon-to-fail proposal.

As reported by Reuters [1] this afternoon, Powell made this laughable claim in a statement released by his office: "We created enforceable rules that reflect the realities of today's media marketplace. The rules will benefit Americans by protecting localism, competition and diversity." Now that all the rumors (and the denials) have Powell looking to bow out, maybe heís warming up for a shot at stand-up comedy!

The Reuters story, written by Jeremy Pelofsky, reports that ìThe House is expected on Wednesday to buck the FCC, White House and House Republican leaders by passing a bill reversing the FCC rule allowing the biggest television networks to expand.î

It isnít just limited to The House. CBS News Reports [2] that the Senate Commerce Committee voted Thursday to overturn parts of a Federal Communications Commission decision freeing media companies from decades-old ownership limits and allowing them to buy more outlets and merge in new ways.

The CBS story explains that this is merely a Committee vote, not the action of the full Senate. The proposal, which faces an uncertain future in the full Senate and a tough road in the House, would roll back changes that allowed individual companies to own television stations reaching nearly half the nation's viewers and combinations of newspapers and broadcast stations in the same city.

Meanwhile President Dubya, that man who ignored anti-war protests because they seemed like focus groups, is taking some political advice from Republicans who want to get Dubya on the Anti-FCC-Rules-Change bandwagon.

There is activity brewing to set up a presidential veto of the bill (yes, we know, Dubya thinks Presidential Veto is his counterpart in Italy) to shore up the Prez as hearing the voice of the people.

Would Dubya do the veto if he thought that anti-war types were for it?

ABC News carries an AP story [3] about the veto with a well documented explanation of the veto scenario and how some Republicans are looking for the Senate to recast the language and set up a veto. Some might call this getting out of the way in order to calm the waters.

Either way, it would appear that Powell must go.

Given how all the Washington insiders chatter and gossip about the strained relationship that Dubya has with Colin Powell, (father of Michael, Secretary of State), could be that the prexyís cold shoulder and slap on the face to Michael is actually a proxy snip at Michaelís daddy.