Communications Policy for a Second Bush Term
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Republicans are meeting in New York discussing not only the election, but how to improve the federal government. One major candidate for improvement is communications policy. Fixing the problems of this sector will be a challenge left for the winner of November’s election. What should a reelected President Bush do?
The communications sector (telecommunications, Internet, broadcasting, cable, related manufacturing, and services) has disappointed everyone in the past four years.
The FCC has contributed to the malaise with weak communications policy, including indecision, overly complex rules, and rules that are frequently overturned by the courts.
Each problem feeds on the next in a vicious spiral. Senator Stevens and others in Congress hope to address some problems with new communications laws, but neither the public nor the president should count on Congress to solve all of the world’s problems through legislation.
The first step is perhaps the least obvious: Disengage the White House from communications policy.
The issues of communications policy, while vital to the interests of individual businesses and industries, should not compete for executive office attention with the war on terrorism, tax policy, or other issues vital to president.
In the strange theater of Washington politics, corporate CEOs and lobbyists visit the White House in search of staffers to inform about the perils of administration communications policy.
The staff members unbelievably profess to have no influence on communications issues, yet the FCC waits for smoke signals from the same White House that claims not to influence them.
White House interference with communications issues has accentuated the indecisiveness and even naivete of the administration. Whether in broadcast ownership rules, unbundled network element rules, or litigation strategy on appealing the unending list of court losses, the White House either has not interfered or has interfered clumsily and belatedly.
The president has extraordinarily capable individuals handling communications policy both in the administration and at the Federal Communications Commission, including Chairman Michael Powell. He should let these individuals make decisions and replace them if they make mistakes.