Most of the journals lacking the laser-like focus of RBR/TVBR are reporting the nomination of NM Governor Bill Richardson to serve as Barack Obama’s Secretary of Commerce. But we know the real story is that Richardson will be overseeing the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The functioning head of NTIA, of course, will be an assistant secretary reporting to Richardson.
RBR/TVBR observation: We checked out Richardson’s presidential campaign site, which is still up, and as is the case with most candidates, he did not mention word one about broadcasting issues – the closest he came was to support network neutrality. But it won’t matter much. As we’ve noted in the past, it has always seemed that NTIA’s main communications task up until this year, when it got an actual assignment (handing out converter box coupons), was to occasionally write a report about how it might handle a given issue if it were the FCC and actually had any authority.
