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Date:         Sat, 23 Jan 1993 09:12:28 -0500
From:         Vigdor Schreibman - Federal Information News Synd
              <fins@ACCESS.DIGEX.COM>
Subject:      Industry Plans "Hostile Takeoverr" of the NII

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          TO THE EDUCATION, LIBRARY, AND INFORMATION COMMUNITIES
                       AS A PUBLIC SERVICE BY FINS
        THE FOLLOWING NEWS COLUMN WAS POSTED IN SEVERAL LISTS TODAY


FINS: Communicating the Emerging Philosophy of The Information Age
FEDERAL INFORMATION NEWS SYNDICATE
VOL I, ISSUE 2 (915 words)                EMBARGOED UNTIL JANUARY 25, 1993


CLOSING THE "VALUES-GAP":
Industry Plans "Hostile Takeover" of the NII
By Vigdor Schreibman

    With the inauguration of the new President, we are constrained to
expand our hopes to the outer limits while knowing full well that the sig-
nals he has already sent reveal a man intent on going wherever power will
lead, disregarding all his promises without a moments hesitation or blush. He no
 sooner told us that he would restrain insider politics and demand
strict avoidance of any conflicts of interest, when he charged right ahead to
 appoint the chief lobbyist for the Information Industry Association--
insider of all insiders, conflict of all conflicts--as chairman of the
transition committee concerned with the Federal Communications Commission.

    The FCC is the key administrative agency tagged by the IIA to assert
preemptive authority over the nation's information infrastructure.  They
simply sent their man attorney Ron Plesser over to shape things up for the
coming take-over of that agency by the incoming gang.

    Then we are informed by the captains of the American computer indus-
try, chief executives of the 13 giants in this field--including Apple,
AT&T, Compaq, Control Data Systems, Cray Research, Data General, Digital
Equipment, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Silicon Graphics, Sun Micrsystems, Tandem
and Unisys--that they are taking charge of the planning for a proposed
National Information Infrastructure, entirely without our participation.
Instead, they are planning a propaganda campaign to build "widespread
understanding of the benefits this infrastructure could bring to indiv-
idual Americans."  What is wrong with this arrangement, it seems to me,
is the fact that the free and informed exercise of the power of the
people to control their own destiny, is the sine qua non of republican
governance, a core principal that the new President, together with this
gang of industrialist, would dismiss out of hand.  Moreover, while we are
to be disregarded during the planning phase of this unprecedented program,
industry plans to have the ratepayer of local telephone exchange networks
(that's us!), excluding long distance carrier charges (that's fat cats!),
assume all financial responsibility for the cost of the new information
infrastructure, estimated to be about two or three hundred billion dollars
give or take a few billion bucks.  Of course, since the fat cats will nat-
urally have the greatest use of this information infrastructure in manag-
ing their affairs and manipulating ours to serve their selfish interests,
the unfairness of the scheme now being cooked up is utterly obscene.

    Finally, dear ratepayer, you should understand the significance of
placing pre-emptive control over this infrastructure under the authority
of the FCC. This is the most wantonly immoral, dysfunctional and illegiti-
mate Federal agency that has ever been imposed upon the American people.
[Carton, 1991]; [Moyers, 1989]; [Schreibman, 1987]; [Postman, 1985]. If
you think that the broadcasting system we have tolerated under such admin-
istration is lacking in competence and integrity, just wait until you and
your children have had the full manipulative impact of the most powerful
computer-aided information systems that mankind has ever conceived of.

    The governing statutory basis for the FCC, is the Communications Act
of 1934, 48 Stat. 1064 (1934), as amended, 47 U.S.C. 151 et seq.  In
enacting this legislation, it was the avowed purpose of Congress to main-
tain the control of the United States over all the channels of communica-
tions by wire and radio (now including television), "for the maximum bene-
fit of all the people of the United States." [National Broadcasting Co. v.
United States, 319 U.S. 190, 217 (1943)].  The Commission is governed by a
primary standard in the exercise of its specifically enumerated functions,
so that (in legal theory) the "public interest" will be served. [47 U.S.C.
secs. 303, 307(a), 309(a)].  Nevertheless, Congress and the FCC, with the
acquiescence of the Federal Courts have unjustifiably failed and refused
to define the "public interest" values and social objectives that shall
govern the use of the broadcast spectrum.  The governing standard for
broadcasting has simply been left bereft of content and meaning!

    The blunt reason for this failure is because the insiders "never really
wanted to enforce the public interest," according to Henry Geller, former
General Counsel of the FCC and first administrator of the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration who explained this situ-
ation in an interview with the author.  Delegated great power by Congress,
without any means to insure accountability, this agency operates as a
floating fiefdom doing whatever it wants at the whim of whichever politi-
cal surrogates of industry who happen to occupy the agency at any time.
Make no mistake about it, this agency operates only at the command of the
industry, to insure their profit maximization at the expense of society-
at-large, although it is the latter ("We the People"), who own absolutely
the paramount rights in this domain.

    In this situation, vesting the FCC with pre-emptive powers over the
proposed NII cannot sustain the support of the American people.  Moreover,
without this support world leadership in telecommunications and information
technologies, sought by the Government and private industry, is impossible.
Instead of encouraging public participation and redoubling efforts to
design a policy all stakeholders can endorse, Mr. Plesser and industry
groups are bent on carrying out what amounts to a "hostile takeover" of the
NII.  The stakes are so high, however.  This course could end in tragedy.

__________
Federal Information News Syndicate, Vigdor Schreibman, Editor & Publisher,
18 - 9th Street NE #206, Washington, DC 20002-6042.  Copyright 1993 FINS.
E-mail fins@access.digex.com; Fax/Voice (202)547-6106.  Subscription rate:
(omit from release to Internet).
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU