Powell to Resign as FCC Chairman

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael K. Powell, who championed digital technology but whose four-year tenure was marked by controversies over indecency on the airwaves and the easing of media ownership restrictions, said Friday that he would step down in March.

Powell sent a one-page letter Friday morning to President Bush, who appointed the former Army officer and antitrust lawyer to the job in 2001.

In a statement, Powell, whose departure will follow closely the exit of his father, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, said he had “completed a bold and aggressive agenda” but added that his resignation came “with a mixture of pride and regret.”

There was no immediate word on a successor, though sources close to the administration say the front-runner is Kevin J. Martin, a Washington lawyer and current FCC commissioner who worked as an advisor in Bush’s 2000 campaign. The FCC, which is charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable, has five members.

White House spokesman Ken Lisaius on Friday praised Powell for helping advance Bush’s goal that all Americans have affordable high-speed Internet access by 2007.

“He has shown a strong commitment to expanding the reach of new communications technologies and services,” Lisaius said.

But others said the 41-year-old Republican would leave a jumbled legacy. Adam Thierer, director of telecommunications studies at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, said Powell’s largely deregulatory philosophy was often hard to reconcile with his fervor for cracking down on sexually explicit content.

As for the rules broadcasters are currently expected to follow, Thierer added, “utter confusion reigns.”

Jeff Zucker, president of NBC Universal Television Group, echoed that sentiment Friday when he said at a gathering of the Television Critics Assn. that Powell’s departure was an opportunity for new leadership that he hoped would translate into more consistency in the FCC’s response to the indecency issue.

“The key thing that we’re all looking for is some uniformity,” said Zucker, whose network came under fire from the FCC for an expletive uttered by U2 singer Bono on an awards show. “Right now, it has appeared that everything has been dealt with so indiscriminately and differently in each case.... If everybody understood what the rules were, that would be a step in the right direction.”

From his very first news conference as chairman, Powell had been a lightning rod for criticism. In 2001, he likened low-income Americans’ lack of access to the Internet and other costly technologies to his inability to afford a luxury car on a bureaucrat’s salary. He described the phenomenon as the “Mercedes-Benz divide.”

Powell never seemed comfortable in the public spotlight, and his brusque style could rub people the wrong way. Bruce Fein, a former FCC general counsel, said Powell’s biggest failing was that he was a poor consensus builder.

The commission has often been fractured, with 3-2 votes on important matters, and Powell’s often unyielding stance has done little to bring unanimity.

Although some touted Powell as a visionary for embracing new technologies, Fein said the chairman too often had worked around the edges of issues instead of tackling major problems head-on, such as the complicated way telephone companies compensate each other for completing calls.

AT&T; Corp., for instance, was paying more than $9 billion a year to local network owners to complete calls, an amount the long-distance giant claims far exceeds the actual cost of performing the service.

Powell has made considerable progress in other areas, however, including prodding the TV industry to make the switch from analog to digital television broadcasts.

When he became chairman, relatively few digital TV programs were on the air, and only a tiny percentage of homes had digital sets. Today, close to 10% of all homes have some kind of digital set, and hundreds of hours of digital programming are offered every week by broadcasters, cable operators and satellite services.

A self-described gadget junkie, Powell has tried to foster new technologies, especially wireless, broadband over power lines and voice over Internet protocol, a technology that ships voice in packets, much like e-mail, over high-speed lines. He also urged telecommunications executives and broadcasters to transition more quickly to the sharper video and compact disc quality sound of digital TV.

Powell has made strides on behalf of consumers, spearheading a national “do-not-call” registry for avoiding telemarketers and standing up to phone companies by allowing consumers to keep their cellphone numbers when changing service providers.

But those highlights were often overshadowed by high-profile clashes with Congress on the one hand and 1st Amendment advocates on the other. In 2003, a bipartisan uprising of lawmakers opposed Powell’s attempts to allow media conglomerates to increase their ownership stakes. The plan, which drew a record 520,000 written comments from the public, has been blocked by a federal court. The agency is weighing whether to appeal that decision.

Powell found himself again at the center of controversy last year, when he drew the ire of broadcasting when the FCC began levying more fines for the airing of indecent material.

Viacom Inc.’s CBS was hit with a $550,000 fine for airing a Super Bowl halftime show during which pop singer Janet Jackson partially bared her breast. Then, in November, Viacom agreed to pay a record $3.5 million to settle several outstanding FCC enforcement actions against the conglomerate’s TV and radio stations, including those who broadcast shock jock Howard Stern’s show.

Stern, who features an altered photograph of Powell with devil’s horns on his website, told listeners Friday that it was “a great day” for broadcasting.

“Thank God he’s gone,” he said. “But God help us with what’s next.”

The FCC received more than 1 million indecency complaints in 2004, most of them in reaction to the Jackson incident. Also last year, the FCC recommended more than $7.7 million in fines for indecent programming, a huge increase from 2003, although many of the biggest fines are under appeal.

Appearing on CNN on Friday, Powell said the FCC’s role in the indecency debate was dictated by Congress, not by the whims of any particular commissioner.

“We’re not on a crusade that we invented,” he said. “We’re enforcing a congressional statute which has wide bipartisan support.”

He noted that complaints from the public have mushroomed in recent years.

“In 2002, we had 111 total complaints about television,” Powell said. “Just in the first half of 2004, we had 550,000 -- approaching a million for the year. We have a duty and a responsibility to respond to those complaints.”

Andrew Schwartzman of the Media Access Project, which lobbies for more strict limits on media consolidation, said he believed Powell was frustrated by how indecency came to dominate his tenure.

“I can tell you, he ... resents the fact that he was the one stuck having to defend the commission’s policy,” Schwartzman said.

Powell’s departure was first revealed on the Wall Street Journal’s editorial pages Friday. Praising Powell’s tenure, the paper called on the Bush administration to cut regulatory red tape to encourage greater development of high-speed Internet access and urged the White House not to replace Powell with Martin, the Republican FCC commissioner who many expect Bush will tap to take Powell’s place.Commissioners are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate for five-year terms, except when filling an unexpired term. Only three commissioners may be members of the same political party.

If he is named chairman, Martin will not need Senate confirmation because he is already on the commission.

Besides Martin, the leading outside candidates include Rebecca A. Klein and Pat Wood, two former chairpersons of the Public Utility Commission of Texas.

Wood is now chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the longest-serving Bush appointee covering state and federal terms. Klein, the first Latina to head the Texas PUC, served in the Medical Service Corps during Desert Storm.

On Capitol Hill, Rep. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) called on Bush to appoint a new chairperson who “will work to restore and uphold principles of a free press.” She warned that Powell’s deregulation agenda, were it to continue, could lead to “unprecedented levels of media consolidation.”

But other lawmakers urged Bush to find a new chairperson cut from the same cloth as the outgoing chief.

“Powell’s vision of blending progress in technology with reduced federal influence over the marketplace was a good approach,” said Senate commerce committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).

As a young man, Powell had joined the Army, hoping to follow in his father’s footsteps. But in 1987, his military career ended when he was severely injured in a jeep accident in Germany. After more than a year of recuperation, Powell went to law school.

He served as chief of staff at the Justice Department’s antitrust division and then, in 1997, was appointed an FCC commissioner by then-President Clinton. Four years later, Bush made him chairman.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Powell’s tenure at the FCC

Key rulings and events under Michael Powell

January 2001: Michael Powell is appointed as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

March 2002: Cable modem is declared an “information service,” allowing broadband technologies to avert regulations imposed on telephone services.

January 2003: The FCC rules that mobile satellite operators could seek authority to offer cellphone and wireless Internet and data services around the globe using radio frequency bands now set aside for communications satellites.

February 2003: Powell’s proposal to free the regional Baby Bell phone companies from having to lease their lines to competitors at discounted rates is foiled.

June 2003: The FCC votes to change five key media ownership rules. The FCC approves letting TV networks own local stations reaching, in total, 45% of the national audience, up from 35%. The rules also allow ownership of a newspaper and a TV or radio station in the same market and as many as three TV stations in the largest cities. The proposed changes were blocked by a federal appeals court in September.

June 2003: The national “do-not call” registry is started to protect consumers from telemarketers.

November 2003: The FCC mandates that consumers be allowed the option to retain their phone numbers when switching mobile-phone providers. The rule went into effect nationally in May 2004.

January 2004: Powell asks Congress for a tenfold increase in the amount of fines the panel can levy against broadcasters for indecent or obscene programming.

March: A federal court strikes down regulations that require local phone companies to lease their networks to competitors at discounted rates.

March: The FCC rules that rock star Bono’s use of a sexual expletive during the 2003 Golden Globe Awards was “indecent and profane.”

April: Powell warns television broadcasters that they risk a congressional crackdown if they resist plans to convert to digital TV quickly. The FCC proposal would require broadcasters to air only digital TV channels by 2009 and return their analog airwaves to the government.

June: A U.S. appeals court largely bars the FCC’s bid to relax media ownership rules.

August: The FCC approves technology that allows TiVo subscribers to send recorded television shows over the Internet.

September: Viacom’s CBS is fined $550,000 for showing the baring of singer Janet Jackson’s breast on the Super Bowl halftime show. Viacom has vowed to fight the action.

October: The FCC rules that the Baby Bells don’t have to share their networks for residential customers with rivals.

November: Viacom settles a series of FCC indecency actions, some stemming from remarks made by radio host Howard Stern, for $3.5 million.

November: Internet phone service is exempted from state rules.

November: The FCC rejects the idea that allowing pay-TV subscribers to pay only for channels they want would lower cable bills.

December: The FCC votes to stop regulating wholesale local phone rates in the residential market by early 2006.

Compiled by Vicki Gallay

Times staff writers James S. Granelli, Jon Healey and Richard Simon contributed to this report.