Let's give the FCC 18 months to live

Hey, Aaron, this is the old Ex-FCC Commissioner, Nick Johnson, writing in praise of your proposal my old agency be abolished. (A local group has a petition to deny a license renewal of Sinclair that has been “pending” at the FCC for over two years, and has been informed by Senators and Congressional representatives who have inquired of the agency, that it now has a policy not to answer inquiries from citizens regarding such matters.)

Although I think I’d like to leave the FCC on life support for, say, 18 months longer just to see what McCain or Obama end up doing with it. My fear is that it will be more of the same (you noted that Bill Clinton wasn’t all that helpful).

But if even the “Community Organizer in Chief” (Obama) finds he can’t (or even doesn’t want to) improve things a bit then I’d say it’s time to give some really serious attention to your proposal, going through the laws and Commission regulations to see what, if anything, would need to be retained and then figuring out who (agency, industry committee) could best take over the responsibility.