Quote:
Originally Posted by cuervo72
You know, you'd think I'd have been more aware of the politics involved there over the past 15 years...
(McCain was for deregulation, yes? That seems like a generally Republican stance.)
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McCain was the patron of FCC deregulation chief Michael Powell (going so far as to unseat a sitting GOP member of the board in order to get Powell in place) but eventually ended up, IIRC, voting
against the final bill. Yes, that's as contradictory as it sounds.
My problem with McCain vis a vis broadcast deregulation isn't with his position(s) but rather specifically with hearing him give one of the THE worst interviews in the history of politics.
He was talking to Sean Hannity as I recall, and it was the most bewildering 20 minutes I've ever heard from any politician. Think along the lines of the guy (name escapes me) who described the internet as "a series of tubes" ... except worse.
The longer McCain babbled on the more I realized that he -- the man described at the time as the "lynchpin of deregulation" -- had less understanding of ANYTHING he was talking about than (insert random person) my mother. It was frightening & spellbinding at the same time, it was a chilling combination of doubletalk and nonsense. The average person would have just glazed over but for anyone with any experience in the industry at all, the contradictions and misuse of terms were glaring. Someone taught him to pronounce various words, nobody bothered to teach him the meanings of them nor how they interacted with each other.
It was to the extent that, on that day, I realized the man was a complete charlatan, utterly out of his depth ... but trying to fake it for all he was worth.