Stealth Regulation: Moral Meltdown and Political Radicalism at the Federal Communications Commission

The drama and scope of government policy affecting new media and society may not be accurately captured if we look only at what has happened since 1999. If we look back just a few years earlier, to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, just about any US media policy action before or since pales by comparison (Aufderheide, 1999). This is not to say that there have been no important events shaping and redirecting the communication and media environment in the past five years. In the United States, we saw the overnight disappearance of internet euphoria as the startup dreams of countless dot com companies dissipated. We also saw the giant US telecommunications utilities bleed through bankruptcies, massive layoffs, and dramatic losses in stock value. Suddenly, on the eve of the new millennium, the US economy’s brightest stars – its high-tech information and communication technology (ICT) industries – were flickering and faltering, and with them, many private fortunes and public hopes for continued overall economic prosperity. In the midst of this decline came the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on US targets, an event that not only challenged US complacency and isolationism, but one which also seemed to contribute further to declining confidence in the US economy, deepening a the recession that was already underway. So what has been the role of US media policy during this time? The administration of George W. Bush, like that of his predecessor Bill Clinton, has been decidedly supply-side. In addition to telecommunications law, new media & society