I suppose we finally know who had their fingers in this Pai
FCC inspector general sticks corruption probe into chairman Ajit Pai amid $4bn media merger
The chairman of America's broadband watchdog – the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – is under investigation by the regulator's inspector general following a series of decisions that appear to favor one of the country's largest media owners. Since taking over as chair in January 2017, Ajit Pai has made big play of his …
COMMENTS
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Friday 16th February 2018 18:41 GMT hellwig
I figured Pai would go back to Verizon with his repeal of net neutrality. It was a feint. He gestured at the internet, but was really working the other end for traditional media. Brilliant! When was the last time a
corrupt[Ed: redundant] FCC chairperson wasn't focused on the Internet, ISPs, cable, etc...?Over-the-air TV is truly a return to form. Maybe this is a double feint, and he's working something else regarding radio for ClearChannel? What more could they want?
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Friday 16th February 2018 12:33 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Corruption
No doubt corruption in Washington is "business as usual", but meanwhile Trump's supporters really believe he's draining the swamp when he's actually made it deeper than it was under Obama. He's got Pai obviously operating with a backdoor deal to be hired by Sinclair the moment he leaves the FCC - no doubt he believes (probably correctly) that he'll be able to get his "job" done and quit before they're able to stop him.
Trump has multiple cabinet members traveling first class or on military aircraft for various bullshit reasons, which was never done in previous administrations and is quite clearly in violation of government travel regulations. He successfully in some cases and unsuccessfully in others appointed a string of utterly unqualified people to posts with specific requirements (like a right wing radio host without a science degree to a position as "chief scientist" of the Department of Agriculture, I guess because he was from Iowa he must know agriculture?)
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Friday 16th February 2018 00:58 GMT Kev99
Doesn't surprise me any. The FCC won't even enforce its own rules on broadband definition and access, such as with Frontier Communications. And if you want to contest anything the FCC does (or doesn't do) better have deep pockets. It'll cost you a minimum of $1,000 ($275 filing fee, plus attorney fees for filing) to file a formal complaint. Informal complaints are a joke, by the way.
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Friday 16th February 2018 21:43 GMT JohnFen
In order to sue the FCC or Pai over this issue, you need standing to sue, which means that whoever brings the suit has to show that they were personally and directly harmed by the action.
Plus, suing a governmental agency is a different kettle of fish, and under the best of circumstances is an enormously difficult thing to do. It's hard to even get it to court. Not impossible obviously, but the chances of success are always low.
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Friday 16th February 2018 05:11 GMT DCFusor
The bright side of these clowns being incompetent at hiding their corruption is that more people notice and will cut it less slack in general - at least in their minds. Too bad keyboard warrior skills don't count for much. How did all media wind up in such limited ownership over the past....few decades? This isn't new, it's just more blatant.
People should get mad as hell and refuse to take it anymore. Oh, but if I make trouble, they might cut off my sports-ball cable or something.
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Saturday 17th February 2018 00:52 GMT JohnFen
Re: Just Doing His Job
The Constitutionality of preemptive pardons, like the issue of whether or not a President can pardon himself, is unsettled -- but it should be noted that it's been done before, most recently when Ford pardoned Nixon even though there were no criminal charges against him.
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Friday 16th February 2018 13:41 GMT Alistair
Dammit.
I can normally get into the sport of poking at the Pai. I have earned more than a few upvotes on said sport. For some reason this morning I'm just not on point. I just cannot comprehend how someone in his position, seeing this train coming down the track, can stand there and honestly believe (and I figure he *has* to believe) that they have done nothing wrong. There must be something seriously wrong with the brain of such an individual. And this "wrong", be it disease, or invalid reasoning, or broken logic, or some sort of psychosis seems to be utterly pervasive in politics. Globally, although the Americans seem to make parading it about on stage and trumpetting it to the world a celebration. I suspect my tolerance is running thin again and I need to take a vacation away from human beings.
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Friday 16th February 2018 16:29 GMT Commswonk
Re: Dammit.
I just cannot comprehend how someone in his position, seeing this train coming down the track, can stand there and honestly believe (and I figure he *has* to believe) that they have done nothing wrong. There must be something seriously wrong with the brain of such an individual. And this "wrong", be it disease, or invalid reasoning, or broken logic, or some sort of psychosis seems to be utterly pervasive in politics.
IMHO all you need to remember is that narcissistic personalities and sociopathic personalities are real, not imaginary. Both types are attracted to politics because "control freakery" features in both types.
Possibly at the other end of the scale look back at yesterday's El Reg story about the computer miscreant who burst into tears when handed a two year custodial sentence. Finding out the rules did apply to him after all was probably quite painful experience.
The Gupta brothers in South Africa might be about to make a similar discovery.
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Friday 16th February 2018 21:05 GMT Anonymous Coward
Boiling point
The problem with corruption in America is that action has never been taken before without there first being some obvious, gargantuan scandal to trigger it. Won't lay down a history lesson here, but that's a fact. So what's going on is really necessary to have things reach the boiling point.
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Monday 19th February 2018 14:09 GMT Anonymous Coward
A coup is not a coup if they've followed all the rules...
The nice (?) thing about the USA is that the average resident commits (famously) 'Three Felonies A Day...' (by Harvey Silverglate, 2009).
Because of this, once you're in the crosshairs, sooner or later, you'll be offered a plea bargain. 4700 years or only 24 years if you plead guilty.
Pure raw power struggle. Only thing missing is gun fire. That's down the street at the unrelated massacre.