President-elect Barack Obama has announced he plans to nominate Julius Genachowski to head the Federal Communications Commission in his administration—a move that has been greeted by applause from media reformers and open media advocates. The FCC is currently run by Chairman Kevin Martin, whose tenure has not been without controversy: under Martin’s watch, the FCC approved the merger of Sirius and XM satellite radio as well as AT&T and Bellsouth, and significantly eased restrictions on cross-ownership of newspaper and television outlets in the same markets; the FCC has also played a major a role in overseeing the transition to digital television and establishing principles for an open Internet—and the FCC recently sanctioned cable operator Comcast for violating those principles.
