New FCC Chairman Genachowski will put citizens before big media

The nation's regulatory agencies have had a leisurely couple of decades. Financial institutions from Wall Street to Main Street have run amok. Media companies have not only been allowed, but also encouraged, to gobble up as much as they can ingest.

As a result, the country is in the midst of a recession with a crippled media infrastructure. This lackadaisical oversight might be changing at least with one regulatory agency.

The Federal Communications Commission finally has a leader who might actually work for what is in the best interest of the American people. Julius Genachowski was confirmed Thursday by the U.S. Senate as the chairman of the FCC.

Genachowski should be a vast improvement from the past two chairmen, Kevin Martin and Michael Powell, both of whom pushed policy that served big corporations to the detriment of the public. Both tried to eliminate the cross-ownership ban, which prohibited a company from owning a newspaper and television station in the same market. They also did little to implement a network-neutrality law, which would keep Internet service providers such as AT&T from giving preferential treatment to moneyed Web sites or charging users more for particular content.

If Genachowski brings the same ideas he helped craft and promote for the Obama campaign and transition team, the FCC will be a much different agency than it has been for many years.

Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, a national organization that promotes diverse and independent media, said Genachowski was a great appointment. He points out that the new chairman, who was a law-school classmate of President Obama's and a former FCC staffer twice over, was the prime force behind Obama's Technology and Innovation Plan, which would:

• Ensure the full and free exchange of information among Americans through an open Internet and diverse media outlets;

• Create a transparent and connected democracy;

• Encourage the deployment of a modern communications infrastructure;

• Employ technology and innovation to solve our nation's most pressing problems, including reducing the costs of health care, encouraging the development of new clean energy sources and improving public safety;

• Improve America's competitiveness.

If these points can be implemented, the country would have a comprehensive broadband network that reaches rural and inner-city areas, and a dispersed and diverse press. This would be a significant development.

An FCC that enforces the cross-ownership ban and promotes policies favorable to diverse media ownership will go a long way to strengthening our democracy by growing the number of independent voices.

Genachowski can unleash voices that have been struggling to be heard.

There have been some tweaks to the online presence of the Democracy Papers. The Daily Democracy blog now lives under the title of the Democracy Papers. The site (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/thedemocracypapers/), which is still found on the Opinion section's Web page, is a place where I will write about the press, media and democracy. The focus of the project is mostly on preserving professional journalism in a time of technological and economic change. In addition to my writings I will be posting links to others writing about the press, technology and communications. Check it out. Let me know what you think.

Ryan Blethen's column appears Sunday on the editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is: rblethen@seattletimes.com