Much to the chagrin and surprise of many old-guard Reaganites, Republican FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has emerged as one of the most regulatory chairmen in decades.

Since assuming the chairmanship three years ago, Martin has been aggressively pushing a government-knows-best agenda designed not only to referee inter-industry relations, but also to shape the content of broadcasting and cable.

The marketplace philosophy that has guided FCC actions since at least the Carter Administration suddenly seems out of fashion.

Martin's allies are often Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein—two old-school liberal Democrats whom previous Republican chairmen would have marginalized.

His prime target has been cable, but in recent months, he has turned his sights to broadcasting in an effort to encourage more local programming.

He's established new “enhanced disclosure” rules requiring TV stations to file quarterly reports listing the kinds of local programming they air.

And he has launched a rulemaking that could lead to local programming mandates and force stations to ascertain the interests of community groups.

Returning to pre-1980s regulations

Such regulatory burdens were cast off during the Reagan Revolution of the 1980s.

The idea of bringing them back is all too much for the man who led that revolution at the FCC, then-Chairman Mark Fowler.

“This unfortunate and wholly unconstitutional action by the commission smacks more of Moscow under the old Soviet empire than Main Street USA,” says Fowler of the localism initiatives.

“The FCC, in effect, becomes the master program director for our nation's broadcast stations,” he adds.

“The voices that use air and electrons must be as free from government control as the press that uses paper and ink,” Fowler continues. “There are no reasons to justify different treatment for the electronic press—only excuses.”

Another high-ranking FCC Republican from the heyday of deregulation also expresses alarm.

“It's as if the past four decades never happened,” he says. “This is as regulatory a commission as we've seen in a quarter century—kidvid, indecency, now the ascertainment redo and looming local program mandates.

“This from a Republican agency? Did Kevin learn nothing from Furthgott-Roth or from Com Law 101?”

Former FCC Commissioner Harold Furthgott-Roth is arguably the most deregulatory commissioner in history. Martin served on his staff in the late 1990s before going to work for the Bush 2000 campaign and the White House and returning to the agency as a commissioner in 2001.

Despite repeated requests, Martin declined to be interviewed for this story.

Conservative disappointment

Conservative Republicans thought Martin would continue the pro-business approach of his predecessor Michael Powell.

The chairman has “definitely been a disappointment,” says the Heritage Foundation's James Gattuso, an FCC policymaker under former Republican Chairman Al Sikes during the first Bush aministration.

“There have been so many opportunities to get some momentum for market reforms that are much needed. I am afraid his legacy will instead set the groundwork for an erosion of markets and set the groundwork for more government intervention,” Gattuso says.

Even when the 41-year-old Republican moves in a more deregulatory direction, conservatives feel he doesn't go far enough.

Last month, the commission lifted the newspaper-broadcast crossownership ban for the top 20 markets but did not repeal the entire rule.

The FCC's decision was only a “minor inconsequential reform,” says Gattuso. Most broadcasters and newspaper publisher agree.

While Democrats publicly decry the crossownership vote, some are privately surprised by his willingness to step in and regulate.

Public interest advocates who believe the FCC rarely goes far enough in keeping TV and radio in line see Martin as a different breed of Republican.

“Compared to Michael Powell [Martin's predecessor] he is unquestionably more regulatory,” says Andrew Schwartzman, president of the Media Access Project.

While Schwartzman disagrees with the chairman on a number of things, he regards Martin as a “balanced Republican.”

Schwartzman says Martin “wants less government, but he's willing to see government take a role where it's necessary to promote competition.”

House and Senate Republicans are frustrated by Martin's regulatory bent.

Last November, 24 Republican lawmakers wrote Martin complaining that his proposal to impose new cable regulations was “misguided and harmful.”

They are especially disturbed by Martin's push to mandate a la carte pricing of cable.

Repeatedly, the House Energy and Commerce Committee's top Republican Joe Barton (Texas) has complained that Martin has failed to be consistent in applying conservative principles at the agency.

“It baffles me how the same FCC can appropriately eliminate regulations for some segments of industry because of increased competition, and at the very same time refuse to deregulate or even impose more regulation on segments of industry that are creating that very competition,” Barton said during an FCC oversight hearing.

Indeed, Barton is so irked that he's joined Commerce Committee Democratic Chairman John Dingell in launching a major investigation into the agency's regulatory procedures and practices.

Barton has even | More …