FC: Regulation aficionados applaud Congress action against FTC

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Tue Jan 22 2002 - 14:18:58 PST

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    (Andrew correctly says below that trade associations and lawyers may not
    always represent the public interest. But he never makes the case for the
    Media Access Project being any more, ah, disinterested. --Declan)
    
    ---------- Forwarded message ----------
    Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 16:28:33 -0500
    From: Andrew Schwartzman <aschwa02at_private>
    Subject: Letter to Senator Hollings - wp file attached
    
    January 22, 2002
    
    The Honorable Ernest F. Hollings
    Chairman, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
    United States Senate
    Room SD-508
    Washington, DC 20510-6125
    
    Dear Mr. Chairman:
    
         Media Access Project wishes to express its appreciation for your
    prompt response to the Administration's ill-fated effort to restrict the
    Federal Trade Commission's antitrust authority, especially as it affects
    media, telecommunications, intellectual property and other mergers which
    will determine the future of democracy in the digital era.
    
         MAP urges you to pursue this matter aggressively.  In particular, MAP
    asks that you remain skeptical about claims that there is a problem in
    need of repair.  MAP's experience is that the FTC and the Department of
    Justice have been quite effective in allocating responsibility for
    particular mergers.  Those claiming otherwise typically are trade
    associations and lawyers who represent companies seeking merger approval;
    their purported desire to expedite the review process may more accurately
    be described as an interest in obtaining approval of mergers, not
    improvement in antitrust enforcement.
    
         You understand as well as any member of Congress the important role
    that independent regulatory commissions have always played in maintaining
    public confidence in the integrity of the regulatory process when
    controversial or politically sensitive issues must be addressed. While the
    Department of Justice's Antitrust Division has generally attempted to
    deflect political interference, there are disquieting indications that its
    newly installed management may not respect this tradition of independence.  
    That is why the FTC is inherently better equipped to handle most such
    cases.  Any arbitrary division of authority between the Department of
    Justice and the FTC will inevitably deprive the public of such independent
    review in many instances.  It is especially alarming in this regard that
    the secret plan devised by Messrs. James and Muris would have denied the
    benefits of bipartisanship to the most politically volatile of all
    mergers, those involving increasing concentration of control of the mass
    media and the technologies those companies use to influence the
    marketplace of ideas.
    
         Finally, MAP asks that you exercise your oversight authority to
    explore whether the private antitrust bar exercised inappropriate
    influence in the development of this scheme.  MAP stresses that it lacks
    any evidence of questionable conduct.  However, reporters covering this
    matter have implied privately and in print that some attorneys in private
    practice at the least had advance knowledge of plans to divide antitrust
    jurisdiction.  Insofar as Chairman Muris intentionally kept his fellow FTC
    Commissioners in the dark about these negotiations, the involvement of the
    defense bar would be a matter of considerable significance.  The public
    deserves to know if this were the case, and Chairman Muris and Assistant
    Attorney General James deserve exoneration if such implications turn out
    not to be true.
    
                                       Sincerely,
    
                                       Andrew Jay Schwartzman
                                       President and CEO
    
    
    
    
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