FCC: Burn it down or reform it?

Criticizing the way that the Federal Communications Commission conducts its business has been something of a parlor game in tech policy circles for years. Like most parlor games, it's simple enough to start playing. The problems have been so apparent that Reed Hundt, a former FCC Commissioner, says his former agency has a reputation for "capture by special interests, mind-boggling delay, internal strife, lack of competence, and a dreadful record on judicial review." Why would he say this? Well, for some of the same reasons Congress recently released a report titled "Deception and Distrust: The Federal Communications Commission Under Chairman Kevin J. Martin." Martin's tenure has been characterized by hasty decision-making, secrecy, confusion, and even a bit of fear; it's gotten bad enough that some staffers held a silent protest last year by wearing black. The question, then, isn't whether to fix the FCC, but how to do so. A conference organized this week in Washington by Public Knowledge and the University of Colorado's Silicon Flatirons center sought answers, and the two groups have now launched a new FCC reform website based on the event. The site allows for user-submitted suggestions, which will eventually be turned over "to the new leadership at the FCC as well as the appropriate officials in the incoming Obama Administration."