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FCC boss Ajit Pai is being investigated by his own agency over potential corruption allegations.
The already-unpopular agency boss has been on a tear in recent months gutting decades old media-consolidation rules designed to protect consumers and the nation's media markets from any one broadcaster becoming too powerful.
Pai's efforts arrived, not coincidentally, at the same time Sinclair Broadcasting Group is attempting to acquire Tribune Media as part of a $3.9 billion dollar megamerger. It's a deal a bipartisan chorus of critics say would demolish media diversity, resulting in Sinclair owning more than 230 local stations across 72 percent of the United States.
Given criticism of Sinclair for its often distorted and inaccurate news reporting, consumer advocates say the deal would have a profoundly negative impact on the quality and diversity of media discourse, as well as already dwindling competition in the space.
Without Pai's assistance on this front, the Sinclair merger would have been impossible.
Now the New York Times indicates that the FCC's Inspector General has launched an investigation into whether Pai acted inappropriately as he rushed to dismantle media consolidation rules.
Also at CNN, Gizmodo and The Verge.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Saturday February 17 2018, @09:55PM (2 children)
Hillary's head is not full of classified secrets. She has people for that. Her head is full of a ledger of favors and leverage, who owes her and what she has on somebody. That's the real reason why she isn't in jail.
She also still does control the DNC. She stacked its office with her cronies and they purged most of those who didn't support her in the primaries. As such, she also controls all the Democratic Congressmen, who rely on the DNC for voter registration lists, talking points, campaign help, seed money for their campaigns, etc. That control extends down through the state parties to local precincts. Incidentally, it's not just legislators she controls, but judges and district attorneys who run on the party line. It's a big network of people, and they all cover for her.
So putting her in jail would necessarily mean putting a lot of the top echelon of the Democratic Party in jail, too.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Sunday February 18 2018, @03:35PM (1 child)
So putting her in jail would necessarily mean putting a lot of the top echelon of the Democratic Party in jail, too.
As a Bernie voter, that sounds good to me.
What's keeping the Republican-controlled Congress and Executive from doing this? Is it that they'd rather have these crappy Democrats in place because they're all bedfellows?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Sunday February 18 2018, @07:44PM
As another Bernie voter and now former Democrat, myself, I agree.
It is a good question you pose. Why don't they? They do all generally serve the same interests, just using different language and memes that appeal to different parts of the electorate. That's one explanation. Another explanation is that they're afraid that once they open that can of worms, it will rebound on them, too, sooner or later.
Of course it seems to me that the greater risk for everyone is that while they're pussy-footing around each other, refusing to hold anyone accountable, the obviousness of their lawless behavior abounds and draws nearer the inevitable conclusion which is that the citizenry decides to hang them all.
Washington DC delenda est.