The Center for Public Integrity is Watching the Watch Dog...

Dunbar explains theories in his article, Who's Watching the Watchdog about how the industry and government are essentially working together to build big business and industry in the Multi-media and entertainment industries. The Center for Public Integrity is an organization that is in place to watch over policies made by the FCC and wants to make sure that they are making fair policies that the public is informed about.

The "Spinning Door" theory refers to people in government positions for the FCC moving jobs and being hired directly within the industry and vice-verse. The example used in the book refers to Dorothy Attwood who began as chief of local telephone regulation at FCC and then moved to SBC as the senior vice president for federal regulatory strategy. Dunbar summarized the problems by stating that moving between government and industry jobs is not illegal, it causes issues because proprietary information that is confidential may be compromised and used in this new position. There are policies in place that are suppose to prevent such issues from happening, however in the FCC, because Attwood did not work a high enough position, she was overlooked and was able to work immediately.

"Frequent Flying" refers to members of the FCC that accepted travel and entertainment gifts from big media telecommunication and broadcast organizations. These gifts included anything from tickets to games to "frequent flier" miles, which is where this theory gets its name. This article/theory highlighted examples of FCC members taking over $8.2 million dollars in these gifts. The problem comes when one considers how FCC officials can make unbiased and objective decisions that will benefit all, when they are constantly being courted and bought by industry executives. For example, "FCC officials took 330 such trips to Las Vegas during the period, 173 to New Orleans, 102 to New York and 98 to London"(136). Dunbar states it best when he states that "the trips are unseemly and represent and improper coziness between FCC officials and the businesses they regulate" (137). In simple terms, FCC members were using organizations to pay for trips, which create and uneasy relationship that would not necessarily allow members to do their jobs effectively. The practice was viewed as wrong, rightfully so. Essentially, "frequent flying" is bribery.

When some one speaks about things done "Behind Closed Doors", they are usually refering to things done privately, out of the public eye. The same applies for FCC officials and industry executives. These meetings allow FCC officials and broadcast industry executives to discuss policy reform in private. This does not contribute to the idea of democracy. Called "ex parte" meetings, they are allowed by the FCC and are not recorded. They are closed door meetings that FCC outsiders must put in notice to attend. Essentially, meetings and issues are covered out of the public eye so that there are no interferences between the industry and manipulating the issue.

Posted in an article by Cnet news on December 2, 2008, Free Press is another organization that is pushing for Obama to persuade the FCC to prioritize an Open-Net policy and to make news channels and radio stations more local again. The most I see concerning reforms within the FCC currently are articles appealing to Obama, highlighting the fact that change does need to occur. The immense media coverage shows me that people are beginning to be more concerned with the policies that pass and affect us all.