Kennard's interventionist note: At a news conference today following his official swearing in ceremony, new FCC chairman William Kennard sounded an interventionist note on several issues facing the commission, including liquor ads on television, the battle for control of MCI, and wireless auctions.
"Not one person has told me that more distilled liquor advertising is a good thing for the country," Kennard said.
Kennard said he would judge the competing bids by GTE and WorldCom for MCI Communications "according to what best serves the American public." He also voiced concern that more bidders in the FCC's most recent wireless auction might be unable to pay up, in the wake of bankruptcy filings by the number two and number three bidders in last year's US$10.2 billion auction.
Kennard had been the commission's general counsel before being nominated by President Clinton to replace outgoing chairman Reed Hundt. He becomes the first African American to chair the commission.
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MS annihilation warning: Orrin Hatch says Microsoft is trying to dominate the Internet. "Microsoft now has the ability to virtually annihilate any competitive product it wants by bringing it into the next version of Windows," the chairman of the US Senate Judiciary Committee told The Wall Street Journal. "There's evidence that they are aggressively seeking to extend that monopoly to the Internet, and policy-makers have to be concerned about it."
The Utah Republican's committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on Internet commerce Tuesday. Hatch's comments come soon after the Justice Department charged Microsoft with violating a 1994 consent degree that placed guidelines on the company's marketing of its Windows operating system. (3.Nov.97)
