I Can Hardly Believe The Shamelessness
By OlgaB
Posted on Tue Sep 19, 2006 at 12:09:01 PM EST
I am a young intern at Common Cause, and joined with that fired up "Screw the man, he's corrupt" attitude. Now that I've struggled my way through H.R. 5252, the COPE Bill, I am simply stunned because it's a plan to become more corrupt - straight from the mouth of the beast. You be the judge, does this sound too blunt to be true?
H.R. 5252 is the Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act (COPE)
1. A company would have the option to become a national franchise. Right now if a company wants expand into a community it has to negotiate a contract with the local government before it can come in, but a national franchise is national. The company wouldn't have to talk to anyone, it already has the right to expand.
How many costly lawsuits would it take to keep a company out should a community be against them coming in?
But wait, it gets worse.
2. On page 23, there is a subsection entitled "Local Franchising Orders -- Requiring Compliance" which states that a local franchising authority has the right to order a company to comply with FCC regulations, but goes on "... but a franchising authority may not create any new standard or regulation, or expand upon or modify the Commission's standards or regulations."
I have a few questions:
a. What if there's a local problem the FCC hasn't had to deal with before - what's the local government to do? This section takes away much of their power to respond.
b. Can the FCC even be trusted to protect public interest? Just look at Dawn's September 14 blog "Destroy the Evidence." The FCC doesn't appear to have public interest in mind at all, and corporate interests seem much more important.
Please prove me wrong. Maybe the legalese has me confused. Maybe it's because I don't know how business works, but unless this is written in code, HR 5252 aims to let corporations expand anywhichway and takes away local power to regulate what's happening in their communities.
When businesses are power-hungry to no end, and supposed regulators side with them (or is the FCC under the corporate heel?), what are we to do?
Tags: Media and Democracy, COPE, national franchising, community interests, FCC (all tags)
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