The Other Powell Takes a Powder

Federal Communications Commission head Michael Powell, son of outgoing Secretary of State Colin, is expected to resign his post in the Bush admin today.

The Progress & Freedom Foundation loved the guy and says so here. Reason took a more balanced view. Here's our interview with him from the December '04 issue.

From the intro:

Another view argues that the chairman isn't the deregulator he's reputed to be–that in fact, he's made the government more intrusive. His FCC has pushed an industrial policy-style mandate for digital television (DTV), and last year it forced TV and computer manufacturers to include anti-copying tools in their products. In August the agency took a similar step with Internet telephones, requiring them to install surveillance-friendly wiretap equipment in the name of homeland security.

And while Powell's proposed changes to the media ownership rules were deregulatory in many ways, they would have tightened the caps on how many radio stations a company may own, while grandfathering in most of the acquisitions that predated the rule change. Worse, the chairman seems more interested in letting existing broadcasters merge than in letting new broadcasters emerge.

Whole Q&A here.