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ShareNothing unusual about NY State’s attorney general and governor wanna-be Eliot Spitzer going after the music industry for more consumer gouging: Spitzer Alleges Payola in Lawsuit. What’s noteworthy is who ISN’T joining him in this crusade.
Note how the article ends:
the FCC has been largely quiet on the issue. The agency launched a payola investigation of an Entercom station in Niagara Falls, N.Y., more than a year ago but has not announced any results.
FCC insiders said Spitzer’s investigators, frustrated by the agency’s inaction, had stopped sharing documents with them.
Spitzer told ABC News last month, “I would like to see the FCC more directly involved in addressing what is very clearly a payola scandal that has run rife through the industry. They have failed to do so and we have reached out to them.”
Spitzer reiterated that critique Wednesday, telling a reporter with the Associated Press, “The FCC must come to life on this issue. Maybe their ears are clogged, I don’t know.”
Yep, that’s your tax dollars at work. When they find perceived threats of obscenity on the radio or TV, they jump into action but when the music industry is ripping everyone off, they spend tons of time and money doing nothing (so far). Their ears are clogged and their priorities are screwed up, again. Their job is to regulate the public airwaves and make sure that no one is trying to exploit them. And for that, they’re pathetic, anemic and weak-kneed, leaving Spitzer to do all the work, or rather to do their work for them. Does it have anything to do with the fact that Clear Channel is one of the companies being investigated? Wouldn’t want to upset a big Republican donor now, would they?
Want to know why the FCC isn’t doing their job? Why not contact them and ask? Their website has their contact page. I’m sure they have reasonable explanations (aka form letters) to reply but they should know from the public that their foot-dragging is not apprecaited.
