Obama's FCC Pick Another Good Sign for Open Media »
Posted By JSilver 10 months ago in NewsAs anticipated, Julius Genachowski has been tapped by President Barack Obama to head the Federal Communications Commission...
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JSilver
I am currently the executive director and a co-founder of Free Press. Before Free Press, I ran a statewide campaign for public funding of elections ...
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berkeley10 months ago
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is this the second unambiguously good appointment?
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the first was for OLC, dawn johnsen.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/01/05/...-
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hyperbola10 months ago
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As two zionist failures head off to "represent" America in negotiations with Syria, I wonder why Obama appoints another second generation immigrant from Poland? Time to start appointing Americans.
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Feltman and Shapiro due in Damascus this week
http://www.propeller.com/story/2009/03/03/ny-forei...
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Klarissa10 months ago
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"Genachowski served as law clerk to Supreme Court justices David Souter and William Brennan in the early 1990s. Then he signed on as Senior Legal Advisor to FCC Chair Reed Hundt in 1994. A year later, he went out on a limb and wrote a letter to The New Republic, urging its readers to file comments on Hundt's proposal that broadcasters "generate a minimum amount of children's educational programming each week (say three hours rising to five)." The FCC eventually got this done, settling on three hours.
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He also helped a bit with his boss's crusade against broadcasters who dropped the voluntary ban on hard liquor ads on television. This got Hundt in trouble with those inveterate toastmasters, the former House Commerce Committee Chair John Dingell (D-MI) and W.J. "Billy" Tauzin (R-LA).
Genachowski was brought in to raise the white flag. "We don't have a consensus now at the commission or on the Hill about what the commission's next step will be. There may not be that much left to talk about," an article in Broadcasting and Cable quotes the lad as gallantly declaring to a gathering of TV executives. This and other accomplishments got him promoted to Chief Counsel in 1996.
In this higher capacity, he helped Hundt make growling sounds at the Nielsen rating service, which the FCC feared might have been undercounting minorities and children as TV viewers.
''We rely on Nielsen data in making policy judgments,'' a 1996 New York Times article quoted Genachowski as saying. ''First, for our own purposes, we need to know of any systematic errors. Second, if there is undercounting and if it is distorting what is on TV, then if there is a clear and direct link between alleged problems at Nielsen and what goes on free TV, we need to know about it.'' -
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Klarissa10 months ago
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"A year later, he was out the door. "At the outset, I would like to recognize my Legal Counsel, Julius Genachowski, who will shortly be leaving my office for the private sector," Hundt declared in 1997. "He has been a gifted and marvelous counsel—and a good friend—and I want to publicly express my great appreciation for his wisdom and hard work for me, and for the American public."
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With that, our change-we-need man went off to claim his share of the dot bomb, sitting on the boards of JackBe.Com, Expedia Inc, Hotels.com, the Motley Fool, and Ticketmaster. Plus, he served as general counsel to General Atlantic, USA Networks, Interactive Corp., USA Networks, and USA Broadcasting.
It appears that Mr. Genachowski made a bit of money during these years. According to The New York Times, Interactive formed a joint venture with Viviendi called Vivendi Universal Entertainment. This further enriched the entity's famously fortunate CEO, Barry Diller, who received a 1.5 percent stake in VUE, then left it in 2002 after working with the project for less than a year. The Times cited Diller's stake at $275 million, which came with a guaranteed value (something the Interactive shareholders lacked).
Perhaps to show that he was a share-the-wealth kind of guy, Diller transferred some of his gains to three top Interactive staff.
Julius received a piece of the action worth $2.5 million. Genachowski and two others had ''worked alongside me in this company for most of it and I wanted them to have a participation in this," Mr. Diller told the Times. " -
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