Re: Comcast merger FAQs

["Aaron [Bishop] Read" <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 04:17 PM 11/19/2002, Joseph Pappalardo wrote:
>You know, there's one question that always baffled me...maybe someone can
>shed some light on it.
>
>Does the head of the FCC (Powell) have *any* credentials for this job in
>communications or otherwise....or should I believe my skeptic's side and
>believe he is simply the son of a high powered Washington official?
>JP

He served as one of the five commissioners during Kennard's 
chairmanship.  Other than that - your suspicion is correct - he has no 
credentials in communications.  He DOES have a lot of political 
appointments under his belt, according to his biography on the FCC site:
http://www.fcc.gov/commissioners/powell/mkp_biography.html

I would guess a lot of these appointments are at least in part due to his 
father's name and influence.   Powell's comments in past FCC decisions 
before he was chairman always gave me the impression that he was a career 
bureaucrat with little or no understanding (or desire to understand) the 
actual issues with communications, rather he's just interested in the 
politics of communications and nothing more.   His actions since taking the 
reigns reveal him to be, IMHO, a tool of big business and little else.

____________________________________________
Aaron "Bishop" Read     aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels Technical Consulting / Boston, MA
www.friedbagels.com   AOL-IM: ReadAaron