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Obama to Name Tom Wheeler, a Former Lobbyist, to Head FCC

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Re: Obama to Name Tom Wheeler, a Former Lobbyist, to Head FCC

#41

Post by mseebach »

snikolic wrote: post #38
mseebach wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a lobbyist, he headed the National Cable Television Association, and later the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association. Why might cable TV operators, cell operators and Internet providers would pay someone good money to lobby for more government regulation? What business purpose could that possibly serve?

To be fair, those were actually fairly progressive and disruptive industries when was involved in lobbying for them.

So why did they need lobbying for more regulation? Why did they turn into complacent monopolies?

Re: Obama to Name Tom Wheeler, a Former Lobbyist, to Head FCC

#42

Post by mseebach »

w1ntermute wrote: post #7
galectin wrote: post #2

They told me that if I voted for Mitt Romney that lobbyists would be put in charge of the internet.

There was nothing false about that. It was your mistake for assuming that voting for Obama wouldn't also result in lobbyists being put in charge. As long as we have only 2 parties, they will have no incentive to do anything different from one another. It's like expecting your local cable monopoly to be a better ISP because they have to compete with your local telephone monopoly for Internet subscribers.

Democracies tend to gravitate towards a binary choice, regardless of the actual number of parties. This happens all the time in Europe.

Don't mistake the fact that we have social policies different from those in the US for diversity, it is very much a cross-party consensus.

Re: Obama to Name Tom Wheeler, a Former Lobbyist, to Head FCC

#43

Post by Qualman »

mseebach wrote: post #34
Qualman wrote: post #9

Does being a former lobbyist make him inherently evil, though? I'm no fan of lobbying from any aspect, but it's shallow to judge his priorities off of this one piece of his career -- especially with the article highlighting his history in favor of the government regulating telecom.

As a lobbyist, he headed the National Cable Television Association, and later the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association. Why might cable TV operators, cell operators and Internet providers would pay someone good money to lobby for more government regulation? What business purpose could that possibly serve?

These are irrelevant questions, as the article specifically states that he is in support of regulation:

"...Tom Wheeler, appeared open in 2011 to letting wireless giant AT&T Inc. acquire T-Mobile USA...But he had a price. In exchange for a $39 billion merger, AT&T would have had to agree to a slew of new regulations, according to an idea Mr. Wheeler laid out at the time on his personal blog."

If you dig into said personal blog, you can find the following article [1], where Mr. Wheeler summarizes his reasoning:

"Now we have the perverse situation where a government win means less regulation while a victory for the corporate interest opens the door to more."

It is clear through his explanation that his approval was meant only as leverage for harsher regulations on the duopoly of wireless TelCos. That is a pretty solid indicator of where his allegiance lies. Likewise, if you meander around his blog, you'll see lots of musings in favor of Net Neutrality.

[1]: http://www.mobilemusings.net/2011/09/awaiting-final-aria.htm...

Re: Obama to Name Tom Wheeler, a Former Lobbyist, to Head FCC

#44

Post by white_devil »

emiliobumachar wrote: post #35
tantalor wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The industry under discussion (communications) generally does not risk lives, i.e., no catastrophe when you screw up. Some types of industry do risk lives. Don't confuse safety regulations with other business regulations. They serve completely different purposes. We should regulate the hell out of fertilizer depots, power generators, medical software, flight. For good reason.

Communications can, in fact, kill people. High-intensity electromagnetic emissions. Those cell towers in the middle of the city have to be very thougthfully planned and installed.

If "high-intensity electromagnetic emissions" from cell towers kill people, I doubt making them safe is just a matter of placement.

If you want to place some in the middle of a city, they will be close to a lot of people, and if their emissions kill people, it's probably not a good idea to place them near lots of people. But they have been placed pretty much everywhere. It appears that either you're overstating the dangers, or we're both about to die any second now.

Re: Obama to Name Tom Wheeler, a Former Lobbyist, to Head FCC

#45

Post by fuzzix »

rayiner wrote: post #8

It's interesting what the headline chooses to mention. He was a lobbyist from 1979-1984, but he's also a venture capitalist and entrepreneur who has founded multiple telecommunications companies: "Mr. Wheeler is a managing director at Core Capital Partners, a Washington investment firm with $350 million under management. He has helped to oversee the firm’s investments in an array of start-ups and small- to mid-size t…

> "He also is a member of the board of EarthLink, an Internet service provider that competes aggressively with Verizon and AT&T."

Is that the Scientologist ISP?

Re: Obama to Name Tom Wheeler, a Former Lobbyist, to Head FCC

#46

Post by jacoblyles »

ck2 wrote: post #4

This notion that each industry knows best how to regulate itself keeps ending us up in one disaster after another.

The most regulated industries in America are banking, medicine, and education. It seems to be doing a good job.

Meanwhile internet technology is among the least regulated. Someone needs to do something to ensure a vibrant competitive landscape.

Re: Obama to Name Tom Wheeler, a Former Lobbyist, to Head FCC

#47

Post by pudquick »

fuzzix wrote: post #45
rayiner wrote: post #8

It's interesting what the headline chooses to mention. He was a lobbyist from 1979-1984, but he's also a venture capitalist and entrepreneur who has founded multiple telecommunications companies: "Mr. Wheeler is a managing director at Core Capital Partners, a Washington investment firm with $350 million under management. He has helped to oversee the firm’s investments in an array of start-ups and small- to mid-size t…

> "He also is a member of the board of EarthLink, an Internet service provider that competes aggressively with Verizon and AT&T." Is that the Scientologist ISP?

The company was founded by several Scientologists, yes - Sky Dayton, Reed Slatkin, and Kevin M. O'Donnell.

It's my understanding that while they were directly involved, some of the published media the corporation put out would sometimes have a 'column' where Sky ended up mentioning Scientology in some way. However, none of them are involved in the company any more.

The company went through some major restructuring, leadership and organization-wise, in 2006-2007. They're a public company with a board of directors (of which Tom is now a part). Not sure how much Scientology has any impact or connection (financial or otherwise) to it any more, so I'm not sure calling it the 'Scientologist ISP' is still accurate.

I know that the connections/beliefs of the founders - and the fact that Reed Slatkin was convicted of a massive ponzi scam - has put Earthlink on many scam/cult watch lists semi-permanently.

If you're attempting to draw a connection between Tom and Scientology, though, I'm not sure I follow.

Re: Obama to Name Tom Wheeler, a Former Lobbyist, to Head FCC

#48

Post by [deleted] »

Qualman wrote: post #9

Does being a former lobbyist make him inherently evil, though? I'm no fan of lobbying from any aspect, but it's shallow to judge his priorities off of this one piece of his career -- especially with the article highlighting his history in favor of the government regulating telecom.

[deleted]

Re: Obama to Name Tom Wheeler, a Former Lobbyist, to Head FCC

#49

Post by skore »

jacoblyles wrote: post #46
ck2 wrote: post #4

This notion that each industry knows best how to regulate itself keeps ending us up in one disaster after another.

The most regulated industries in America are banking, medicine, and education. It seems to be doing a good job. Meanwhile internet technology is among the least regulated. Someone needs to do something to ensure a vibrant competitive landscape.

> banking, medicine

So either this is extreme sarcasm or extremely hilarious in a laugh-gets-stuck-in-your-throat kind of way.

Re: Obama to Name Tom Wheeler, a Former Lobbyist, to Head FCC

#50

Post by shiftpgdn »

Danieru wrote: post #13
supercanuck wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would the free market prevent the Fertilizer plant from exploding and killing all those people?

Fertilizer plants are expensive? As are wrongful death lawsuits? Not saying this is enough but no one is exploding these things for profit.

Tort reform in Texas HIGHLY limits the payout on a wrongful death lawsuit. It'd barely be a dent in a days business for the plant.
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