McCain’s Maverick Ways Extended To Broadcast

Arizona Senator John McCain, who died over the weekend from brain cancer, was a powerful force in communications policymaking, particularly during his two active turns as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee (1997-2001 and 2003-05).

From broadcasters’ perspective, his record was mixed.

Although like any good Republican he generally favored keeping regulation light, he pushed for free political air time and vociferously opposed giving broadcasters second channels for their analog-to-digital transition in the 2000s. He clashed often with broadcasting’s Washington reps.

On March 4, 2008, we published a story on McCain’s broadcasting record by our former reporter Kim McAvoy. Despite their sometimes strained relationship, broadcasters were in a mood to forgive and forget at the time, no doubt in large measure because McCain then had a fair chance of becoming the next president.

Here is that story from 10 years ago, headlined, “What If It’s President McCain in 2009.”

While I was working for Broadcasting & Cable in 1997, then-Editor Don West interviewed McCain just after he took over the chairmanship of the Senate Commerce Commitee for the first time. Published on March 3 of that year, the lengthy Q&A billed on the cover as “Telcom’s Tough Guy” reveals McCain’s deep-seated belief that broadcasters were not fully earning their use of the public airwaves.

That interview ended with West and McCain getting into a heated discussion about the extent of broadcasters’ First Amendment rights and McCain, known for his temper, walking out of the interview. West later wrote about the incident in his blog in an item primarily aimed at praising McCain for his principled stand on Obamacare. See below.

https://theforeverfactor.com/john-mccain/