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Of Course Obama Appointed a Former Telecom Lobbyist to Run the FCC

What we have to watch out for is whether this new guy sides with the telecom giants or not.
Image via Flickr / White House

Any minute now, Obama is expected to name long-time lobbyist and venture capitalist Tom Wheeler as the new head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). (Update: It's official.) This is good news, since the FCC's been in limbo since current chairman Julius Genachowski announced his departure about a month ago. This is also bad news, at least it is in the eyes of some watchdogs, since Wheeler spent a large part of his career working as a lobbyist for big evil telecom companies. He was also a prominent Obama fundraiser, but isn't everybody a crony these days?

To be sure, Wheeler is an impressive-sounding guy. After his lobbyist days working for two telecom industry trade associations — the National Cable and Telecommunications Association and CTIA, the wireless industry trade group — the 67-year-old got into the venture capital game. He's founded several cable and wireless companies and sits on the board of several more. Politico reports that he's been named one of 20 most influential individuals in the history of the cable industry and a top ten innovator in the wireless industry. Wheeler's written a book about Abraham Lincoln's love of the telegraph, cleverly titled Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails. Homeboy even maintains a pretty decent blog.

It's not just the fact that Wheeler's a former lobbyist that has watchdogs shaken up. He's a former lobbyist who's sympathized with the telecom giants in the past. On his blog, Wheeler signaled in 2011 that he would be open to letting AT&T acquire T-Mobile, in what was largely viewed as a move that would send the merged companies into antitrust territory. However, some haters probably missed the part of the blog post where he explains how he would only do so, if the government introduced a slew of new regulations on AT&T.

The fact of the matter is that a lot of people who are qualified for a job as big as FCC chairman have ties to the telecom industry. It's the folks that have worked on the problems that the president wants to solve in various different capacities. Would he nominate a transportation secretary who's never dealt with major transportation companies? No. So a FCC chairman who doesn't possess intimate knowledge of what these telecom giants want would actually be a silly choice.

Obviously, what we have to watch out for is whether Wheeler sides with the telecom giants or not. Those that know Wheeler say, no. "He's interested in competition and promoting new technologies," Washington public interest advocate Andrew Schwartzman told Reuters, adding that Wheeler wants to challenge market leaders. "His mind-set is of somebody who favors the little guy."

That sounds nice and everything. Nevertheless, haters gonna hate. "Now, more than ever, we need a FCC Chairman who will serve as a champion for the public interest, take on industry giants, and make the hard decisions necessary to restore American competitiveness," says Sascha Meinrath, director of the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute. "I am skeptical that the former chief lobbyist of the wireless and cable industries will be capable of holding his former clients accountable for their ongoing shortcomings."