So long, Reed Hundt. (FCC chairman)

Multichannel News, June, 1997 by Hearn, Ted

FCC chairman Reed Hundt, whose PABA-free, dolphin-safe tenure is coming to an end, won't go down in history as a man who enjoyed letting people finish their sentences, as more than one visitor raced from his office vowing to join the Hemlock Society. Instead, Hundt will be remembered by his opponents as a coercive administrator whose zeal to regulate industries and twist laws to fit his fads came to a halt only when his excesses became an embarrassing political liability in Congress or were stopped in court.

His worst moment came with respect to cable television. As a close friend of Vice President Gore, sponsor of the 1992 Cable Act, Hundt had a vested interest in punishing the industry. Unhappy with the FCC's initial 10 percent cut in cable rates in...

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