NESS ODDS-ON FAVORITE FOR FCC CHAIRMANSHIP

Remember Susan Ness?

She was a Clinton-appointed FCC commissioner who served between 1994 and 2001.

Well, you may be seeing a lot more of her. If Hillary Clinton wins the White House next year—still a big “if” despite her front-runner status today—Ness is likely to return to the commission as chairman.

Ness has strong personal ties to Sen. Clinton that stretch back to her days as a campaign worker and fundraiser for President Bill Clinton, who rewarded her with the FCC appointment in 1994.

This time around, Ness has been actively campaigning for Hillary. More important, she is an official “HillRaiser”—a supporter who has bundled at least $100,000 for the campaign.

This is Ness’s third bid to become the FCC’s first woman chairman. She had hoped to succeed Clinton-appointed Chairman Reed Hundt after his tumultuous four years in 1997, but was beaten out for the job by then FCC General Counsel Bill Kennard.

In 2004, Ness plunged into the Kerry campaign as a major fundraiser, hoping again to earn the FCC top job. But Ohio went to Bush.

Even if, as many believe, 2008 is the Democrat’s year, it may not be Hillary’s.

One of the other Democratic candidates, Barack Obama or John Edwards, could slip past Clinton and capture the nomination.

As TVNEWSDAY reported last June, Obama is being backed by the old Hundt-Kennard gang that ran the FCC during the Bill Clinton years.

Leading the telecom wing of the Obama campaign is Julius Genachowski, a former top aide to Chairmen Hundt and Kennard. He has been a friend of Obama’s since Harvard Law School and is now a major fundraiser. He introduced Obama to Hundt and Kennard.

A former top executive at Barry Diller’s IAC/InterActive Corp., Genachowski is now managing director of Rock Creek Ventures, an investment firm focusing on digital media and commerce, and special adviser to General Atlantic, a private equity fund.

Genachowski’s experience and efforts on behalf of Obama would certainly qualify him for the top FCC job, although it’s unclear whether he wants it. He also may be aiming for an even more prominent role in an Obama administration.

Others in the Obama sphere that could be considered for the FCC:

• Blair Levin, who served as Hundt’s chief of staff and is a telecommunications analyst with Stifel Nicolaus.
  
  
• Karen Kornbluh, a policy director on Obama’s Senate staff who served under Hundt and Kennard.
  
  
• Donald Gipps, another FCC veteran and former chief domestic policy adviser to former Vice President Al Gore. Gipps is currently group vice president for corporate strategy at Level 3, which operates one of the world’s largest Internet backbones.

So far, no one with similar credentials or with FCC ambitions has surfaced in the Edwards campaign.

Either President Edwards or President Obama might also promote one of the two current Democratic Commissioners, Michael Copps or Jonathan Adelstein, into the top job.

Both have strong Hill ties, and Copps, through his vigorous campaigning against media consolidation, may now have a higher public profile than does Chairman Kevin Martin.

Just this Monday, Copps was the subject of a major profile in the Los Angeles Times in which he is described as “more proselytizer than pencil pusher” and the first “FCC commissioner-rock star.”

At the very least, as the Times pointed out, Copps might wind up as an interim chairman in 2009 between the times the Republican chairman steps down and a new permanent chairman is nominated and confirmed.

For broadcasters, Copps is the worst-case scenario. Not only is he opposed to further relaxation of ownership restriction, he believes strongly that TV and radio stations should pay for their spectrum by adhering to concrete public interest obligations.

In contrast, Ness, the one most likely to be the new permanent chairman, is viewed as a moderate by broadcasters and as someone with whom they can work. “She knows the issues and she’s very bright,” says one observer.

The negatives that come up are an inability to sell policy and a labored, methodical approach to decision making. “She’d be boring, but she’d be good,” says one TV industry source.

During her days at the FCC, Ness usually voted with her Democratic Chairmen, Reed Hundt or Bill Kennard, but would make them earn her vote and impress her thinking on the final items.

Says one broadcast representative: She was “reasonable and approachable. She wasn’t a hard and fast ideologue. She carried the water on kidvid but not to the extent that a flamer like [former FCC Commissioner] Gloria Tristani did.”

She also gets high marks for her efforts in working out a compromise between industry groups over DTV standards.

And broadcasters like the fact that she has “practical real-world experience” in business.

Ness joined the FCC after nine years in the media lending division of American Security Bank.

Most recently, she was involved in the radio syndication business. GreenStone Media was a venture aimed at creating female-oriented programming for radio, satellite radio and the Internet. However, the project closed down in August after just a year in operation.

“She knows what the marketplace thinks about commission actions,” says a source. “She knows that things have changed in the world; it’s not the same media world.”

Ness, of course, would to a large extent reflect the views of President Clinton on media and telecommunications, but not much is known about them at this point.

Clinton has expressed concerns about the impact of media on children.

Her campaign Web site says: “Among the issues she has fought for and will make a priority as president are: Protecting children against violence and sexual content in the media and studying the impact of electronic media on children's cognitive, social and physical development.”

Clinton is a key sponsor of a Senate bill that would require a study to examine the impact of TV, computers and video games on the cognitive development of children.

With the exception of Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who has been deeply involved in telecommunications policy on the Hill, Obama has been the most outspoken on media issues.

Obama

Obama has weighed in on the FCC media ownership debate on several occasions, voicing objection to relaxing limits. Earlier this year, he and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) asked the FCC to complete a separate proceeding on minority ownership issues.

He issued a statement at the FCC field hearing in September declaring his objections to any FCC attempt to relax the ownership rules.

And he wrote Martin last month urging the FCC to slow down on its ownership proceeding.

“I ask you to reconsider your proposed timeline, put out any specific change to the rules for public comment and review, move to establish an independent panel on minority and small-business media ownership and complete a proceeding on the responsibilities that broadcasters have to the communities in which they operate,” Obama says in his letter.

The Illinois senator is on record saying that an Obama FCC will clearly support net neutrality. (Clinton is also a net neutrality supporter.)

Later this month, Obama is expected to give a major address in Silicon Valley to share his views on broadband policy and telecom issues.

Early in his Senate career, Obama stated his concerns about sex and violence on television and its impact on young viewers. He said he wanted to see a better TV ratings system.

“Broadcasters must improve this system to include a full-screen, detailed rating that gives parents a more precise understanding of exactly what content will be shown in the program.”

He also wants the FCC to spell out broadcasters' public interest obligations before the DTV transition is complete. Specifically, he would like the FCC to require broadcasters to air public service announcements at times when viewers will see them.

“They should donate the public service time to a third party like the Ad Council that works with reputable nonprofits. If they do not do this, Congress should,” Obama said.

In every statement that Obama has made as a senator, the public interest is “his first and foremost priority," says an Obama aide. “That’s why he strongly supports net neutrality and that’s why one of the first things he talked about was ensuring that kids have access to decent programming," says the aide.

Edwards

Edwards’ campaign Web site includes several policy statements on media.

“Network television and commercial radio are now dominated by a few loud corporate voices, with little room for independent perspectives and local grassroots participation,” the site says.

“Radical deregulation has removed critical public interest obligations from broadcasting, and while the Internet has the potential to be the most Democratic medium in history, access remains divided by wealth and neighborhood.

“John Edwards is committed to building One America where everyone has a chance to succeed. He believes that an open, democratic media is essential to enabling free expression, fair competition and the entrepreneurial drive of ordinary Americans.”

The Web sites also says that Edwards will “promote local, open, diverse, and accessible media by: fighting media concentration; restoring the public interest to the public airwaves; building a universal, affordable Internet; keeping an open internet and tuning in thousands of communities with low power radio.”

The North Carolina Democrat also implicitly endorses Copps by including one of Copps’s opinion piece on his Web site.

“Using the public airwaves is a privilege—a lucrative one—not a right and I fear the FCC has not done enough to stand up for the public interest,” the Copps article says. “Our policies should reward broadcasters that honor their pledge to serve that interest and penalize those that don’t.”