"Watching the Watchdog"

Dunbar’s “Spinning Door” theory addresses the tendency of FCC officials to take high level jobs in the industries they were once charged with regulating. Dunbar says, “The truth is that such moves from government to industry and back again are utterly routine at the FCC—standard operating procedure” (p. 133). This kind of relationship between FCC officials and industry is unethical and this union is often advantageous for all parties involved. When Powell’s former senior legal advisor, Susan Eid, moved to Hughes Electronics Corp, company president and CEO Chase Carey said “Her vast public policy expertise and in-depth knowledge of the Beltway undoubtedly will serve Hughes well in our nation’s capital” (p. 133).

Additionally, big corporations pay millions of dollars to have FCC officials flown out to lavish conferences at the industry’s expense in order to speak on or merely observe panels. This gives the industry a unique opportunity to develop more than merely a business relationship with FCC officials. This practice calls into question the ability of FCC officials to remain objective when considering proposals from industries that paid for them to be wined and dined in places like Las Vegas or London.

The FCC various industries also conduct closed doors meetings (termed “ex parte”) where the meeting is not recorded and no minutes are taken. This allows for industries to lobby FCC officials for deregulation without the prying eye of the public.

Even Powell, the former chairman of the FCC says that the industry’s influence over the FCC sometimes goes too far. In the article “The Fight for the Future of Media” earlier in the book, Newman and Scott describe Powell’s attempt to further deregulate the industry and allow for a single corporation to own media monopolies in cities. Since the article “Who is Watching the Watchdog” in 2003, there was a degree of public outcry in response to Powell’s proposed plans and on June 24, 2004 the U.S Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the FCC’s attempts to privatize commercial interests. This shows that people are becoming more aware and more outspoken about corporate control of the media. Though the rebellion is slow, awareness is the first step to reform and it seems to me that people are starting to more often question issues of media control and people are starting to feel like they are more entitled to have input in the media than people have been in the past.