Genachowski Honeymoon Period Has Begun

One element repeatedly surfaces in discussions with media lobbyists and some former top Federal Communications Commission officials when talking about the possible next chairman: Julius Genachowski's business experience. In addition to being a legal scholar who clerked for two Supreme Court justices, he is also a venture capitalist who was an executive with new-media companies, most notably Barry Diller's IAC. "He's been in the private sector and has had to raise money," said one former top Republican FCC official. "He's got to know how bad things are for some of these businesses." "He's worked for Silicon Valley, and is somebody who understands that there needs to be investment and that decisions of the government can very profoundly affect companies and what they plan to do," said a veteran cable lobbyist. The economy is job one for Obama, so there is hope from those representing regulated media and opposed to new Internet regulations that priming the engines of commerce might be higher on the Democratic agenda than usual. While Genachowski is expected to focus on broadband, given that issue's prominence in the Obama economic stimulus package, he is also associated with some strong criticisms of media content. Genachowski is a founding board member of Common Sense Media. While that group advocates parental control and technological solutions over government crackdowns on content, it has also released a study (actually a study of other studies) in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health that concluded media exposure is bad for kids' health—from making them fatter, to encouraging drug, alcohol and tobacco use, to hurting their grades.