I'd say the bad outweighs the good. Don't let the door hit ya on the way out, buddy.

I wonder if Comcast was punished for not donating enough to the republicans. Klear Khannel Kommunications was a major contributor and their monopoly was given the go-ahead.

Martin was a political appointee as much as half of the injustice department (a more apt name for it, considering...). CBS was punished excessively for something beyond their control (the Super Bore halftime antics), yet numerous "talk radio" and "news" programs on various channels had allowed extremists to use hate speech on the air - open calls for the murder of some people, advocating murder and crimes against certain groups, racist remarks, slander, etc.

None of that was punished or even commented on despite groups such as Media Matters and FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting) keeping track of such things and reporting them. Martin was a partisan hack, not an impartial observer; he was no better than Alberto Gonzales, and no more capable of performing the job.

P_Smith. What talk radio are you listening to? I've never heard "open calls for the murder of some people" on talk radio. Sounds like you are not too open minded...
Thank God the Democrats are in charge now... it's all going to be wonderful. No corruption ever tainted them...

Anyone from the old Bush dictatorship that leaves is good news.

Decent enough article, but I disagree on the satellite argument. Those were, and now as one entity, severely troubled companies. They bungled that hearing on behalf of the larger media conglomerates, and dragged their feet on okaying a merger for SATELLITE RADIO significantly longer it took them to come to a decision on the Mobil Exxon merger. They were trying to kill the companies on behalf of the National Broadcasters Association, via a shitload of lobbying money.

Nice overview of Martin's legacy, Carey!

I thought this was a consumer site not Workers Daily. It has been very beneficial for the consumer for the satellite radio stations to merge, at least to every single person I've spoken with. What? Would we rather both companies eventually fail in the name of 'fairness'? This is not a government protected monopoly like ones in the past such as Amtrak,
Union Pacific, or even AT&T. But those were acceptable apparently as the government advocated them

A marketplace 'protected' by government interference is neither 'fair' nor 'competitive'. Why not just come out in support of net neutrality while you're at it?

A requiem on Martin's tenure is tough, since most of the costs of his reign takes the form of opportunity costs: what benefits would have arisen had the FCC taken a more consumer-friendly approach.
Nonetheless, Martin's general attitude (let's let industry regulate itself, and the elven hands of the unrestricted Free Market will lead to Nirvana) worked so well in the oil, mining, banking, investment (...) spheres that, on the whole, Martin rates a hearty thumbs down.

@chrisburp: Are you merely oblivious, or just dishonest?

The name Spocko is obviously unfamiliar to you:

[www.spockosbrain.com]

As are the calls for the murder of Hugo Chavez, among other people. Of course, if people had called for the murder George Putz, there would have been an uproar, but calling for the murder of another country's leader is perfectly acceptable to you, as was Annorexic Coulter's call for invading countries and murdering their leaders.

If the incoming guy spends more effort trying to make telecom services more available, affordable and flexible rather than worrying about boobies on TV it will be a win for all of us.

@ojzitro: Agreed. There's still traditional radio, HD radio and soon internet radio will be hitting cars, I'm sure. I'm not worried about there only being one sat radio company. If they new company succeeds there's plenty of room in the sky for another satellite.

If anything about the merger was an FCC failure it was all the feet dragging they did, likely at the request of Clear Channel.

@bohemian: Or even curtailing the crap that is "text charges" by the cell providers.

There's lots More Bad:
Wasting time on frivolous charges of obscenity.
From Janet Jackson's nipple to last week when Darren Aronofsky gave the finger at the Golden Globes & GASP, it was seen on TV!
Oh, the horror!
18 idiots complained & the FCC has started an investigation.

No intelligent person cares!

@ojzitro: Agreed! They failed because of the amount of time it took.

I've grown quite tired of SiriusXM being called a monopoly. The product they sell is audio programming. They are not the only company that sells that product. There are hundreds of AM and FM radio stations, mp3 players, HD radio, CDs, etc. While SiriusXM is the only company to offer their product as a satellite-broadcast signal, that is merely the method of delivery. Imagine there are two pizza places across the street from each other. One only delivers, and the other only lets you pick up. Do they compete with each other?

I would have to disagree with your satellite radio position. There is plenty of completion to satellite radio. If there wasn't then was was traditional radio so opposed to the idea?

Amazingly he is not going to work for some cable company.

@Greasy Thumb Guzik: Geez, it's just the finger!! Do people really not have anything better to do than to bitch about a freakin' middle finger???

Your assessment of the satellite radio merger as bad is right on target. The geniuses who were beating the drum for this debacle thought they were going to make a quick buck off the stock, which would invariably go up after the merger. Except for the fact that the stock went deeply into the toilet, everything worked out exactly as planned. Now two failing companies are joined at the hip--hooray.

Yes, I've heard all of the bogus arguments about how there's still competition. Unfortunately, if I decide to drop SiriusXM, where else do I go to get ~200 channels of programming in my car, nationwide, for $13 a month? To one of the non-existent competitors, or course.

I think we CAN all agree, though -- those ARE pretty awesome spectacles.

Martin's FCC may have gotten on Comcast's back for their BitTorrent stance, but didn't Martin himself say it was okay until the uproar? I thought he was all for letting them throttle BitTorrent users, or maybe throttling for some other reason.

Doesn't matter, good riddance.

I think I'd rather prepare the tar and feathers.

@ptkdude:

In your pizza analogy, sure they do. But in this case, one pizza place has been told they cannot have any cars on the street, thus they cannot deliver. In both cases, the pizza is shit, but one's method of transport has advantages, thus wins.

I honestly don't care about Sat radio, because it's just the same shit Crap-erm..ClearChannel plays over and over. Oh wait, they got Howard Stern (big f'n deal), and their repetitiveness is GENRE based! Whee... Have fun paying for CrapChannel-like content.

Madison said "If men were angels, no government would be necessary" and Martin's essentially saying strip all regulation & let the best contestant win. Unfortunately having a monopoly or oligopoly media has never been in our best interest.

A healthy media is vital to a healthy government and I hope to god we get rid of idiots like Martin who treat the regulated like their client.

Good riddance.

@TheSpatulaOfLove: My point was they're selling the same product, and are thus competing. I made no comments on the quality of the product, as that is product differentiation and is not relevant to the point I was making. Each service has its advantages and disadvantages, and is priced differently. It is up to each consumer to decide if the amount of utility they get from each provider is worth the price they are required to pay to access it (price includes more than money). If satellite radio is priced higher than you think it is worth, are you not likely to obtain the product (again, audio entertainment regardless of distribution method) from another provider? The fact that there *are* several other providers is what makes SiriusXM a non-monopolistic firm. If enough people feel satellite radio is not worth the price, that cost will go down which is yet another indication that SiriusXM is a non-monopolistic firm.

@TheSpatulaOfLove: Which is exactly the point, If you believe and do not want satelitte guess what? DON'T GET IT. Yousaid yourself it has the same songs as Clear Channel, so if I choose to get those songs delivered without commercials for a price, while you think you want them free with 22 minutes of commercials an hour, then you can do that. We each make that decision for the same product. There is still competition, hence no monopoly. There is also nothing preventing another company from getting into the business if they want to take the risk and expense.

My biggest issue with the FCC in general is their inability to look at bigger issues than nudity or people dropping F bombs on TV. Who cares. People barely would have noticed Janet's tit without DVR and freeze frame watching. If your idiot kids are so traumatized by seeing a black tit, you might want to prepare for your kids to be riding the short bus to school. If your brats can not handle an F bomb occasionally they aren't going to be much of anything in life.
They spend so much time on HowardStern and other radio and TV personalities and what they talk about, but if you don;t like it. TURN IT OFF