Many Media Bureau Decisions Run Past Chairman’s Office

Martin relies on a few trusted aides on the eighth floor to help set media policy, said current and former FCC staffers. They said the top three Media Bureau officials run many decisions past Martin or his main aides on media: Michelle Carey, his media adviser, Elizabeth Andrion, hwo’s filling in for Carey during her maternity leave, and Office of Strategic Planning & Policy Chief Catherine Bohigian. Andrion is Bohigian’s deputy and acting deputy bureau chief. Other media players in the planning and policy office are Penny Nance, the indecency adviser, and Chief Economist Greg Crawford.

Bohigian is by far the most influential official on media, said current and former employees. From her tenure as Martin’s media adviser, she’s well-versed on broadcasting and cable, they said. She’s leading the chairman’s review of whether programmers must let pay-TV operators sell their channels individually and the FCC’s review of Sirius’s proposed $5 billion purchase of XM, they said. Crawford is said to spend much of his time analyzing media economics.

Since Carey took the job in March 2007, she has required lobbyists to deal with the bureau before going to her, said current and former agency officials. That has heartened some at the bureau annoyed that Martin’s previous media aide sometimes bypassed them, and it helps the bureau get input from industry, they said. But commissioners remain frustrated at delays in getting information from the bureau and the planning and policy office, they said. Commissioners recently got a copy of a study on DTV outreach by PR firm Ketchum -- a month after it was delivered, a commission source said. Martin handles approval of the release of anything from the bureau to the commissioners, slowing work, the source said. Media Bureau Chief Monica Desai can’t tell commissioners where some bureau studies and deal reviews stand, the source said.

As was the case at the FCC under previous chairmen from both parties, bureaus usually don’t give commissioners drafts, said an agency spokesman. The delay in providing the DTV plan occurred because federal contracting guidelines demanded that it ask Ketchum’s permission to share it with commissioners, he said. After the PR firm approved, the document went to all FCC members’ offices and publicized it on the FCC’s Web site, he added: “These requests for information were handled appropriately.”

Though broadcast and cable lawyers said they can get information from division chiefs, the chiefs tell them they can’t issue decisions on their own. Only three bureau officials directly speak with Martin, according to interviews with seven former agency employees and about a dozen communications lawyers: Desai, Senior Deputy Roy Stewart and Deputy Rosemary Harold. The sources said division chiefs Peter Doyle for audio, Barbara Kreisman for video, Mary Beth Murphy on policy, Royce Sherlock in industry analysis and John Wong of engineering often tell lobbyists they can’t make quick decisions.

Bureau aides seem frustrated that they can’t act on their own. “It puts the staff in an uncomfortable position that they can’t act without delay,” a communications lawyer said. “It just takes a long, long time.” But staffers are pleased to find their recommendations often are eventually adopted by the chairman, said communications lawyers and former officials. Morale is helped by Desai’s willingness to ask Martin for guidance on how to draft documents so decisions aren’t made at the last minute, they said. Desai “carries the staff’s water” on getting Martin to set goals and deadlines, lawyers said. Desai, who is close to Martin, relies on Harold and others for policy advice because she had little media expertise before becoming chief in early 2007, they said.

Harold, also close to Martin, makes policy recommendations to him, often reflecting suggestions made by her staffers, said industry officials. Harold worked extensively on franchising rules for cable and telco TV providers and a ban on exclusive deals between pay-TV companies and apartment buildings, an industry lawyer said. Stewart’s forte is broadcasting and media mergers. Among bureau employees, he’s known as being the frankest with Martin. Bluntness got him in trouble a few years ago with Bohigian, resulting in his losing influence and being largely shut out of meetings on the FCC’s top floor, said former officials and industry lawyers. But Stewart, a former longtime Media Bureau chief, recently reappeared on the eighth floor at a routine meeting, an FCC official said.

Desai must be involved in reviews of large corporate deals, and she often organizes teams of staffers from various divisions, broadcast attorneys said. Taft Snowdon in the audio division typically “quarterbacks” transactions through the process, a lawyer said. Smaller deals and a wide array of broadcast and cable matters are handled by Kreisman, who acts quickly on matters that aren’t contentious and on digital TV signal maximization applications, industry lawyers said. Associate Division Chief Clay Pendarvis handles full- power TV station issues, and colleague Hossein Hashemzadeh handles low-power and Class A TV licensing, said communications attorneys.

Getting TV license renewals when media ownership rules and other politically sensitive issues aren’t involved doesn’t take longer under Martin than previous chairmen, several lawyers said. “Where there aren’t controversial issues or novel interpretations, on that the staff does an excellent job of processing applications and getting the work done,” broadcast attorney Erwin Krasnow said. Broadcast lawyer Peter Tannenwald said, “The system is working” because “you can get problems resolved. I've had a couple of cases where they stonewall, but so does every administration if they're not interested” in an issue.

Associate Chief Eloise Gore leads the bureau’s DTV efforts, current and former officials said. Her expertise stems from her work on how cable and satellite-TV providers must carry broadcast signals, a cable lawyer said. On technical DTV matters, Hashemzadeh and Nazifa Sawez often help broadcasters, industry lawyers said. Sawez and engineer Gordon Godfrey are on a committee headed by Gore that reviews DTV actions, a broadcast lawyer said. Sherlock and Marcia Glauberman, her deputy, analyze the effects that rules may have, communications lawyers said.

Murphy has dealt with media ownership, including limits on newspaper-broadcast combination and caps on the number of subscribers that cable operators can serve, communications lawyers said. Senior Deputy Steven Broeckaert deals with a wide array of cable issues, including issuing findings of effective video competition and cable carriage issues, they said. Nancy Murphy joined the bureau as associate chief in 2007 after working in the cable industry two decades, and she’s cutting the backlog of the competition petitions, they said. Deputy Policy Chief John Norton deals with franchising, and bureau officials seek the guidance of Assistant Chief Ronald Parver on cable carriage matters, cable lawyers said.

For questions on political commercials, stations and advertisers turn to Bobby Baker, said broadcast lawyer David Oxenford. Since a 1992 change in political-ad rules, Baker has made interpretations and set standards for the industry, Oxenford said. “It’s such an arcane area of the law I don’t think anyone else on the commission wants to fuss with it,” Oxenford said. “They leave it to the expert.” Similarly, some radio policy is left to Doyle, communications lawyers said. They said deputy James Bradshaw is the division’s top engineer, dealing with low-power FM station and FM translator issues, and deputy Tom Hutton answers regulatory questions.