Dems on FCC hold out, despite pressure to get Merger done
According to an article in B&C, the leaders of the House and Senate Commerce Committees were putting pressure on the FCC, in the wake of Friday’s postponement, to get the job done on the AT&T BellSouth Merger. The article states, “In a statement Friday, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Tex.), said the FCC has had plenty of time to consider the merger and plenty of input already.” Now, if you’ve been following the Net Neutrality fight, those two names will look very familiar. Senator Stevens is the “Tubes” guy, and Barton is the one who rushed the vote on COPE through the House. Both have taken HUGE campaign contributions from the major Telecomms, especially AT&T.
In a statement that they made Friday, Stevens and Barton went on to say:
“We are concerned by the commission’s failure to act on the application this week after such a thorough review and a complete record,” they said. “We certainly hope that the delays requested by members of the commission are substantive in nature, although the commission has had ample time to debate the merits of AT&T’s acquisition of Bellsouth.The commission has a responsibility to act expeditiously on the AT&T-Bellsouth application so that consumers will have an opportunity to reap the benefits that will emanate from a stronger video and broadband provider in Bellsouth’s nine-state region.”
Notice that they’re still selling their snake oil of consumer benefits, despite the fact that a deluge of emails inundated the FCC opposing the merger as bad for consumers. The only people who want this deal to go through are the two companies involved and those politicians who have an axe to grind. We all know where most of the pressure is coming from– the one who has AT&T to thank for his illegal wiretapping activity. The one who has awarded AT&T with the lucrative monopoly on military installations in Iraq that has enabled AT&T to allegedly profiteer from the war. The one who seems to be at the heart of anything that’s going down that is bad for US citizens and good for US corporations who play ball with him.
The election can’t come soon enough. I just hope that the FCC Dems manage to block the FCC decision until after the election happens. Can we say lame duck?
Technorati Tags: FCC, AT&T BellSouth Merger, Senator Stevens, Representative Barton, Commerce, Profiteer, illegal wiretapping, Net Neutrality
