The FCC and the KGB -- No Longer A Laughing Matter

[Commentary] Over the past couple of years, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin got a lot of mileage out of making jokes about his "KGB-style management" at the Commission. Nobody's laughing today. The House Commerce Committee report sets out in excruciating detail, supported in some cases by email from FCC staff, how Martin withheld information or ignored information that could have changed the outcome of some proceedings, how he intervened in proceedings and how he created a culture of paranoia around the Commission so that staffers weren't willing to risk disagreeing with the Chairman's conclusions on issues for fear of being demoted. At the Commission, this is called being "Martinized," the report said. As damaging as are the accounts of the individual cases, however, are the reports of staff intimidation and of the creation of the "climate of fear" in the agency. FCC staff were directed not to talk to other staff, or to workers at other government agencies. Staff were told to stop work on anything but not officially approved projects that have been assigned. "Projects that were authorized in the past are not necessarily considered to be authorized at this time," one email read. Everything has to be decided by the chairman's office, from important regulatory issues to the hiring of student interns, the report found. The result was a demoralized, ineffective agency.