Clyburn Affirms Commitment to Media Diversity Principles
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn is committed to ensuring media ownership diversity, she told members of the Senate Commerce Committee during a confirmation hearing Tuesday. If she’s confirmed, Clyburn could be in line to become acting FCC Chairman if Julius Genachowski decides to leave next year, as is expected by many (CD Nov 8 p1). The committee also heard testimony from FTC nominee Joshua Wright, an economist and law professor at George Mason University and former FTC Scholar in Residence. It questioned him on the balance between regulation and the ability of free markets to protect consumers, as well as his willingness to recuse himself in cases involving companies who have financially supported his academic work, such as Google. The committee plans to mark up the nominations next week, said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., without specifying a date or time.
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Clyburn said the FCC has agreed to extend the comment period for 30 days on the commission’s media ownership proceeding so stakeholders can have a “more robust opportunity to respond.” Clyburn said her perspective on media ownership rules is governed by her former experience as a publisher and general manager of a weekly newspaper in Charleston, S.C., for nearly 15 years: “Personally for me those kinds of issues are what I lived and breathed for a number of years, so I commit to you my full participation.” Broadcast and public-interest lawyers recently said Clyburn is opposed to the deregulatory order because the agency didn’t complete studies on the hurdles faced by minorities and women to broadcast ownership (CD Nov 29 p1).
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., said she’s paying careful attention to the commission’s media consolidation proceeding. “I feel very strongly that the commission may be heading towards a resolution of disapproval by Congress if it continues down this path,” she said. “This is not the Rupert Murdoch view of the world. We are saying we want an independent media to be independent and not consolidated so we will be loud and boisterous if the commission is intending to follow this path.”
Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., asked Clyburn what plans the commission has to expand broadband access in rural areas and reduce the costs of the USF. “The FCC has moved forward on an aggressive, incentive-based, fiscally proficient regulatory framework to reform the universal service fund in order to ensure that the funds received by carriers will not only go to voice service but to broadband services,” Clyburn said. The commission’s actions to put the fund on a budget, freeze its levels of support and reform the Lifeline program are estimated to save $200 million dollars, she said.
Clyburn would not comment on a question from Committee Ranking Member Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, about the Commission’s plans if the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rules against the open Internet order in Verizon vs. FCC. “I'm not comfortable committing to a pathway forward at this time,” she said, urging lawmakers to offer guidance on the matter. “We are and will continue to weigh all the views in front of us and we will follow the law to the letter,” she said.
Clyburn said the American communications ecosystem has benefited from the commission’s work to promote a marketplace that both fosters innovation and offers consumers “reliable and meaningful choice in affordable service,” according to her prepared testimony. Clyburn said the service outages resulting from the derecho wind storm and Superstorm Sandy show the importance of the commission’s work to ensure the reliability of the nation’s communications networks. “We may not be able to prevent natural disasters, but we can and must improve our Nation’s ability to respond in such crises,” she said.
Chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., did not attend the hearing because he was not “feeling well,” said Kerry, who chaired the hearing along with Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. The chairman said in prepared remarks that Clyburn should approach her work with the following values in mind: “protect consumers, promote competition and make sure that all Americans … have access to an up-to-date affordable communications network.”
Wright said he would “absolutely” recuse himself in cases where he would have a conflict of interest, such as any investigation of Google, a company that has funded some of his academic work. Wright repeatedly cited President Barack Obama’s “Ethics Pledge,” which prohibits appointees from working on cases involving former employers and clients for two years after their appointment. “The FTC can sometimes move at a glacial pace,” Cantwell, said, meaning that cases currently in front of the commission that would raise conflicts of interest for Wright could still be in front of the commission once his two-year recusal period ends. In that situation, Wright would defer to the opinion of the FTC’s ethics officials, he said. “When and if there is any obligation under the letter or the spirit of the conflict of interest standards, I will recuse myself,” he said.
When asked about it by Boxer, Wright said supported “the commission’s view in favor of a Do Not Track mechanism” and would focus on consumer notice and choice. Boxer said his response was “good,” and asked that he provide in writing more detail about his opinions of the FTC’s specific proposals.
How can an FTC commissioner protect consumers while being wary of regulation, asked Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., citing Wright’s published academic work. “I do believe in rules and regulations. I also believe that markets are a powerful operation that work for consumers,” Wright responded. Rather than being focused on the amount of regulation, Wright said if he were confirmed his approach at the FTC would be “driven by thinking about consumer welfare."
Kerry urged both the FTC and the FCC nominees to encourage bipartisanship and collaboration with their colleagues. Markets will suffer “if you can’t bridge the ideological divide in order to establish a well understood, easily adhered to, effective and accepted body of law and regulation governing competition and consumer protection in the digital age that we now live in,” Kerry said.