User:Bejinhan/Directlobbyingold

Contemporary corporate media lobby
Throughout most of its history, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been a relatively invisible part of the U.S. government, known mostly to industry stakeholders, lobbyists, and officials. With the general public not knowing its practices and responsibilities, this has given a tremendous advantage to those knowledgeable of the FCC’s practices and organized enough to influence them. As Chester notes, "the FCC has long been the second home to a legion of (lawyers and lobbyists) [...] whose occupation is convincing the staff and commissioners to approve policies that benefit a particular company or industry." There is evidence that the FCC continues to be influenced by the corporate media lobby.

The strong, direct relationships that have developed over the years between regulators and corporate media lobbyists, which Zorack notes as essential to greater influence, go much deeper than the notion that the lobby has simply been around for a while. Members of the FCC have traditionally had strong connections to industry. As the job of an FCC Commissioner (or staffer) is often highly technical, and specific knowledge of the dynamics of the telecommunications and media industries must be known, commissioners are often plucked out of high-paying jobs in the industry. History has shown, due to the fact that FCC Commissioners are appointed only to five-year terms, that there is a revolving door between the Commission and industry. As Chester notes, "[t]hey usually go directly to work for the media or telecommunications businesses after they leave office." (Ibid, p. 49) Commissioners often become influential lobbyists after their terms expire. Many of the lobbyists that frequent the FCC’s office are former commission staff, "not infrequently including ex-commissioners and ex-chairs". (Chester, 2007, p. 47)


 * Every former (FCC) chair for the last three decades has gone to work in one way or another with the media and telecommunications industry.... As one aide to an FCC commissioner privately remarked, ‘People leave here on Friday and are lobbying me the following Monday! (Chester, 2007, p. 50)

Notable examples go back almost fifty years, such as former FCC Chair Newton Minow who, after leaving the Commission, became a partner at Sidley and Austin, one of the country’s most successful media industry law firms. In more recent years, he has served on the boards of media companies such as CBS and Tribune and advertising companies including Foote and Cone & Belding. E. William Henry, Chair from 1963 through 1966, and Dean Burch (1969–1974) also became industry lawyers after leaving the FCC. Burch in particular is notable because after many years, he left his practice to run Intelsat—an organization that manages global communications satellites. Most notable among the many is former Chair Richard Wiley (1974–1977), still described today as the FCC’s "sixth commissioner" (Ibid, p. 53). His law firm, Wiley Rein & Fielding, has represented both industry advocacy groups (including the NAA and the NAB) as well as numerous media conglomerates including Time Warner, Gannett, Clear Channel, CBS, Verizon, Microsoft and General Electric (Ibid, p. 53).

In recent years especially, Wiley has become extremely influential and has "supplied more lawyers to the important telecommunications posts in the Bush administration than any other firm." Former Wiley associates were also appointed to important posts in the Bush White House as well as various cabinet positions (Ibid, p. 54). Former Wiley associates have also been advisers to some of the country’s most powerful Senators, including Bill Frist (R-TN). Even former FCC Chair Kevin Martin worked for Wiley at one point. Politicians (and businesses) want the most knowledgeable, well-connected individuals working for them, which keeps the pool of potential hires quite small. Indeed, to suggest that Zorack’s most influential lobbying strategy – access – is an advantage of the corporate media lobby, certainly would be a tremendous understatement.