FCC Under Investigation

Not too long ago we did a story on our Slice of SciFi Show about the practices of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), especially as it applies to their push toward trying to gain control of pay cable and premium channel programming.

At the time we indicated that the FCC was overstepping its authority in its consideration to what we called strong arming pay cable channel owners to abide by the same kind of regulations that non-pay cable channels and conventional networks must abide by.

Now it appears that the U.S. Congress may be feeling the same as they are set to investigate the agencies rule-making practices under the leadership of its current chairperson Kevin Martin.

“The practices at the commission I run are very similar to how the commission has been managed under previous Republican and Democratic commissioners and chairmen,” Martin stated during an economic press conference.

“I was actually at the commission as a staffer when there were Democratic commissioners and a Democratic chairman, and we run the processes in the same way they were run at the time,” said Martin.

Senators and members of the House have been getting complaints from not only cable providers and cable channel owners, but their general constituents as well, which has begun firing up the flames of discontent between America’s legislative body and Martin’s commission, which the Congress overseas and funds with tax appropriations.

On Capital Hill this week the House Energy and Commerce Committee launched a formal investigation to determine if the agency has been fair, open, and above board in its crafting of certain regulatory issues.