Lynne Kiesling
Sounds like it; Robert McDowell, the most recent FCC appointee, appears to believe that free and responsible people are capable of making their own decisions in the telecommunications realm:
McDowell, 43, also signaled that he won’t necessarily follow the wishes of FCC Chairman and fellow Republican Kevin Martin. That may make it harder for Martin to push through initiatives such as forcing cable companies to offer television channels separately. The FCC now has three Republican commissioners and two Democrats.
“I trust free markets and free people to make their own decisions,” McDowell said.
McDowell distanced himself from Martin’s efforts to force cable companies to offer their subscribers a wider range of programming packages. Martin has said that à la carte-style programming choices would allow consumers to save money and to avoid programming that they find objectionable.
In response to pressure from Martin and members of Congress, Philadelphia-based Comcast and New York-based Time Warner, the largest cable operators, created a new programming service limited to family-friendly channels.
McDowell said he’s reluctant to take further steps anytime soon. “It may be that consumer demand favors a private-sector resolution to that problem, so let’s see how that goes.”
A focus on enabling private parties to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes instead of using top-down dictum to control the outcome? What a concept!