A measure introduced by U.S. Sen. John McCain bans industry-sponsored travel by FCC commissioners and staff, according to a statement from the senator’s office. McCain, chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Technology Committee, attached the measure to the FCC Reauthorization Act of 2003 introduced June 13. The Arizona Republican also wants to allocate funds […]

The Federal Communications Commission voted along party lines to dramatically loosen rules that restrict ownership of broadcast outlets. The vote followed “the most comprehensive review of media ownership regulation in the agency’s history, spanning 20 months and encompassing a public record of more than 520,000 comments,” according to the agency. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 […]

A $2.25 billion federal program that helps schools and libraries connect to the Internet is honeycombed with fraud and financial shenanigans, but the government officials in charge say they don’t have the resources to fix it. A Center for Public Integrity investigation reveals the huge program, funded by everyone who pays a phone bill, is […]

As Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell mulls over whether the FCC should loosen rules on media ownership, he might want to take a ride through Birmingham, Ala., the town of his birth. If he flips on his car radio, he will find that of 40 commercial radio stations within a 40-mile radius of the […]

The three largest local phone companies control 83 percent of home telephone lines. The top two long distance carriers control 67 percent of that market. The four biggest cellular phone companies have 64 percent of the wireless market. The five largest cable companies pipe programming to 74 percent of the cable subscribers nationwide. Those findings […]

Federal Communications Commission officials have been showered with nearly $2.8 million in travel and entertainment over the past eight years, most of it from the telecommunications and broadcast industries the agency regulates, a new study by the Center for Public Integrity has found. The FCC is preparing to relax several longstanding ownership rules for broadcasters […]

On the road again—and again By Morgan Jindrich May 22, 2003 Well Connected The business and legislative influences behind our nation’s information networks. Stories in this series Well connected By The Center for Public Integrity May 22, 2003 District of Columbia’s poor pay triple for sub-par Internet service By Laurel Adams February 18, 2011 Billions […]

The nation’s top broadcasters have met behind closed doors with Federal Communications Commission officials more than 70 times to discuss a sweeping set of proposals to relax media ownership rules, the Center for Public Integrity has discovered. The private sessions included dozens of meetings between broadcasters and the agency’s five commissioners and their top advisors. […]

A quasi-governmental corporation set up to fund telecommunications company start-ups is spending nearly as much on executive salaries and overhead as it is investing in companies, a Center for Public Integrity investigation has found. The Telecommunications Development Fund was created by Congress in 1996 to kick-start small communications firms in hopes of spurring innovation and […]

The Federal Communications Commission has adopted new rules aimed at cleaning up financial fraud and abuse within a multi-billion-dollar program that helps wire schools and libraries to the Internet. A January 2003 Center for Public Integrity report chronicled widespread fraud and a lack of proper government oversight of the FCC‘s schools and libraries program, also […]

Well Connected The business and legislative influences behind our nation’s information networks. Stories in this series Well connected By The Center for Public Integrity May 22, 2003 District of Columbia’s poor pay triple for sub-par Internet service By Laurel Adams February 18, 2011 Billions set aside to bridge broadband gap before creating plan on how […]