Associated Press Reporter John Dunbar is out with a story about a private meeting with FCC officials that should infuriate anyone who cares about open government.
On Wednesday Dunbar showed up at a meeting touted as an “exclusive briefing” by top-ranking staff from the Federal Communications Commission for investment clients of Banc of America Securities LLC. When Dunbar walked into the meeting during a lunch break, he was informed it was for “clients only” and was escorted from the room by Banc of America Securities’ managing director David W. Barden.
Excuse me?
Call me crazy, but I think it is an extraordinarily bad idea for the country’s top government regulators of the communications industry to be conducting closed-door, “exclusive briefings” for investors. One could even make a very strong argument that any investor profiting from information gleaned from such an “exclusive briefing” had engaged in insider trading.
Possible abuse of securities laws aside, the bigger question to me is what were those FCC officials doing at that briefing in the first place? Isn’t the prime directive of the FCC to serve and protect the public and the public’s airwaves – first, last and always? How, exactly, does a closed-door briefing for a bank’s investment clients further that purpose?
Banc of America Securities told its investment clients they would receive a “timely” briefing with “topics including the AT&T/Bellsouth merger and net neutrality pending at the Commission.” It should be noted that the investment community is keenly interested in both of those topics and any rumor about possible FCC action on them has moved markets in recent weeks.
Banc of America Securities even promised FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein would be present at the meeting, although his office told Dunbar he didn’t attend.
Way too much of the public’s business gets done in the shadows these days, safely hidden from public scrutiny and the accompanying accountability it demands.
The FCC is certainly not alone among government agencies when it comes to this kind of stuff, but some of its recent actions are especially troubling.
In September it was reported that top FCC officials had ordered the destruction of a pair of studies done by FCC employees as part of the earlier media ownership regulation process. The studies reportedly did not jibe with the deregulatory philosophy of then FCC Chairman Michael Powell.
Embarrassed by news reports and congressional criticism about the suppressed studies, current FCC Chairman Kevin Martin very publicly ordered the agency’s inspector general to conduct an investigation. It is still unclear when that investigation will be completed, or whether it will be released to the public.
Then there was the situation we blogged on last week, where the FCC waited until late on Thanksgiving Eve to release an announcement on some highly anticipated studies on its media ownership rules.
Adelstein’s office released a statement after contacted by AP that said: "We regularly meet with all types of parties to broadly discuss policy goals and priorities. As is our practice, in the meeting today we specifically decline to comment on any transactions pending before the FCC.”
FCC spokesman David Fiske read a prepared statement that said agency staff “have always met regularly with a broad array of individuals and groups on a multitude of issues and in a variety of formats. We welcome this interaction and encourage wide participation by outside parties creating a public record on our issues.”
Such disclaimers aside, we are hopeful that all the appointees and bureaucrats at the FCC will think long and hard before they agree to participate in any future event not open to the public and the media, particularly when it involves such controversial and important issues.
And in that spirit of government in the sunshine, we offer the names and positions of three of the top FCC officials who were scheduled to brief the Banc of America Securities investors this week.
They included:
• Catherine Seidel, acting bureau chief of the Wireless Bureau.
• Thomas Navin, chief of the Wireline Bureau.
• Donna Gregg, chief of the Media Bureau.
Also promised were aides to commissioners Adelstein, Michael Copps, Robert McDowell and Deborah Taylor Tate.
Feel free to contact them and see if they will conduct a private briefing for you on any issues now before the FCC you might be interested in.
