Hopenchange…Business As Usual
From the DC Examiner:
A telecommunications company has confirmed for this columnist that its vice president for policy-who is also an Obama donor and a former lobbyist-is advising Barack Obama’s transition team on telecom policy.
Obama’s transition team, which has failed to disclose this executive’s involvement, happens to have proposed a significant change in telecom policy that will profit that very company, called Clearwire.
By pushing to delay the long-scheduled transition of television broadcasting from analog signals to digital signals, president-elect Obama is directly aiding Sprint and its partner Clearwire while hurting Verizon.
Apparently Sprint and Clearwire are ahead of Verizon in getting data and telephone services transferred to the zippier 4G network. Verizon is awaiting the government’s auction of additional bandwidth, an auction that is being delayed while digital broadcasting gets up and running. Digital tv is also being delayed to allow more time for people to purchase digital converter boxes for their analog tv’s.
According to the column, the longer the conversion is delayed, the longer it will be before Verizon can launch its 4G network and the more time Spring/Clearwire have to market their already working network.
[Clearwires executive vice president Gerard] Salemme, a former telecom lobbyist who has given thousands to Obama, including $5,000 to Obama’s transition team, has helped Obama craft a policy that will benefit Salemme’s company. This is just the sort of arrangement that led to years of Democratic outrage over the Bush administration’s energy policy.
[Writer Julian] Sanchez’s detailed and well-reported article on Ars Technica called to light these conflicts of interest-and the fact that Salemme’s name is nowhere to be found on Change.gov. As of yesterday, the Obama transition team still hadn’t addressed the concerns or added Salemme’s name. The transition team did not return a phone call or respond to an email request for comment from this author.
The effrontery! Daring the question The Obama.
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