Ex-FCC Chairman: McCain has no Telecom Policy

Barack Obama policy advisor and former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Bill Kennard has no great love for Republican presidential candidate John McCain--especially on telecommunications policy.

Speaking at an event Wednesday sponsored by the Media Access Project, Kennard quickly challenged the idea that McCain's six-year track record serving as Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee--responsible for telecommunications policy--was an asset. "It's stunning how little he's accomplished," said Kennard. "He doesn't have one [legislative] achievement [in] the telecom sector... there's nothing. Where's the beef?"

Kennard, FCC Chairman from 1997 through 2001, often had to go before the Commerce Committee to testify on telecommunications and media policy issues and seemed especially embittered when it came to a discussion of the Universal Service Fund and E-Rate program. "[McCain] sought to kill [E-Rate], then turned around and took credit for it ... he opposed it, didn't want it to happen ... he would bully government agencies."

In contrast, Kennard cited Obama's policy paper on telecommunications and technology posted on the candidate's website. McCain had no information and therefore "he just doesn't have" a policy.

McCain representative John Kneuer managed to score some points when the topic turned to media consolidation. Kennard said including the "nascent" Internet as a form of competitive media didn't make sense given its relative new nature but Kneuer pointed out Kennard spent time citing Obama's Internet assets, including 1.5 million online donors, 8,000 affiliate groups on the candidate's website and another million unpaid online volunteers.

Skeptical observers may have also taken issue with Kennard's portrait of Obama being outside of traditional Washington D.C. politics at a forum held in the offices of a downtown law firm.  And if there was an "outsider" at the event, it was Kneuer, a former assistant secretary at NTIA. Of the four speakers participating in the event, Kneuer was the only one who had not served at the FCC, unlike Kennard, Skype's Director for Government and Regulatory Affairs Christopher Libertelli, and AT&T's Chief Privacy Officer Dorothy Attwood.

It should also be noted that Kennard departed the event to have lunch with former FCC chief of staff Blair Levin. Now at Stifel Nicolaus, Levin's name pops up on the short list for FCC Chairman in an Obama administration.

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