Monday, March 2, 2009 - The Progress & Freedom Foundation Blog

This Just in from the "Kick a Man While He's Down" Commission

The FCC has asked for comment on how to require Sirius XM to meet a merger condition requiring it to lease access to 4 percent of the combined company's channels to qualified entities for minority or other programming. Of course Sirius and XM agreed to this silly condition in order to get approval for the combination of the two struggling satellite radio companies, but is there no common sense restraint at the FCC? The Commission took so long to approve the merger - a record for costiveness I think - that by the time the transaction was consummated, the combined entity was on the brink of the abyss. Apparently the FCC is not content to have held the parties up for over a year in their struggle to survive. Now, as the patient rests on life support, the Commission, like some quack 18th Century doctor, is poking around for a vein to open to further bleed the poor invalid. We can only hope that Sirius XM finds the strength to survive the Commission's tender ministrations.

posted by W. Kenneth Ferree @ 11:11 AM | Communications , Mass Media , The FCC