Washington, Thursday (FA wire) - A small cabal of Congressmen voted today to roll back the FCC’s new media ownership rules. Media analysts have implied that such a move could “endanger democracy, destroy freedom, kill puppies and kittens, and ensure that we lose the War on Terror.” Yet if the Bush administration doesn’t act, the vote could become law.
[Fair disclosure: The parent company of this blog, FanapCo, has recently been acquiring other blogs at a brisk pace.* Under these new rules, FanapCo wouldn’t be able to ensure the quality of subsidiary blogs by, say, replacing them with a link to “Fanatical Apathy.”]
The Bush FCC’s new rules, which were hailed by many as “an unquestioned victory for the little guy, working-class folks, and the American way,” were struck down by a narrow 400-21 vote. Because of the fractious, partisan, close nature of the vote, the Bush administration has vowed to fight, even if it means vetoing the entire annual spending bill.
“People are glad the Bush administration is standing up to the lobbyists and special interests that control Congress,” said a highly-placed source. “Americans appreciate that the President is willing to go the mat on this one,” added another Washington insider. According to one poll (which spoke off the record), Americans approve of Bush’s action by a margin of 115%.
The 400 rogue Congressmen who voted to roll back the measure could not be reached for comment. One trustworthy and handsome source indicated that the Congressmen “are probably off celebrating somewhere in some back room, smoking cigars, getting lap dances and stuffing taxpayer money into G-strings.”
[*At press time, FanapCo’s blog holdings included (but were not limited to): Eschaton, memepool, Spinsanity, Media News, Fark!, InstaPundit, metafilter, Excursus!, Miss Cranky, detritus, Girlyshoes, zero card, Relayer’s journal, Call me Tiny, Media Yenta, A girl Named Bob, Roamin’ Redhead, Kambri, Oliver Willis, The Agonist, Rob Paravonian, Julius Sharpe, Tower of Hubris, Best Albino, Girls Are Pretty, Andres DuBouchet, Liam McEneaney, The Rittenhouse Review, Altercation, Brooke’s Bitter Shack, Across the Atlantic, Justene Adamec, Adragna & Vehrs, AfricaPundit, Alphecca, The Lefty Directory, Stand Down, Orcinus, Snotglass Speaks, Hullabaloo, The Note, Progressive Gold, Late Night Thoughts, Sound Bitten, Very Very Happy, Angry Bear, Elayne Riggs, Alas, a Blog, TBogg, Super Blog, Thinking it Through, Free Pie , Ruminate This, Counterspin, , Athena Runner, Atlantic Blog, Charles Austin, Jack Balkin, Zachary Barbera, Ted Barlow, Howard Bashman, N.Z. Bear, Mitch Berg, Big Arm Woman, Bigwig, BitchGirls, Tim Blair, Blogosferics, Blogs of War, Rebecca Blood, The Bloviator, Moira Breen, Edward Boyd, Stuart Buck, Burchismo, Mark Byron, C.D. Harris, Frank Cagle, Capt. Scott’s, Brian Carnell, Cato the Youngest, Steven Chapman, ChicagoBoyz, Cinderella, Joshua Claybourn, Cold Fury, John Cole, The Command Post, Jeff Cooper, Prof. Jeff Cooper, Colby Cosh, CounterRevolutionary, Bo Cowgill, Clayton Cramer, Cranky Professor, Critical Mass, CurryGrrl, Cut On The Bias, Aimee Deep, Brad DeLong, Nikita Demosthenes, Steven Den Beste, Nick Denton, Martin Devon, Discriminations, Ben Domenech, Hossein Derakshan, DPM, Daniel Drezner, Ed Driscoll, Electrolite, John Ellis, Ernie the Attorney, Dean Esmay, Amitai Etzioni, Gary Farber, The Fat Guy, Howard Fienberg, Flit, Flyover Country, Dr. Frank, Fraters Libertas, FuturePundit, Rich Galen, Juan Gato, GedankenPundit, Geek Press, Gene Expression, GreatestJeneration, Stephen Green, Gut Rumbles, Gweilo Diaries, Rich Hailey, Happy Fun Pundit, Andrea Harris, Dan Hartung, Heather Havrilesky, Hawspipe, Jim Henley, William Hobbs, Kevin Holtsberry, The Homeless Guy, Hoosier Review, Horologium, Horsefeathers, Denise Howell, Matthew Hoy, Diana Hsieh, IMAO, Iberian Notes, InstaLawyer, IsntaPundit, Joanne Jacobs, Jeff Jarvis, Jessica’s Well, Charles Johnson, Brothers Judd, Junius, Sarah Eve Kelly, Lynne Kiesling, Kathy Kinsley, Mark Kleiman, Alex Knapp, Dave Kopel, Jason Kottke, J.D. Lasica, Ken Layne, Kitchen Cabinet, LawMeme, Larry Lessig, James Lileks, Brink Lindsey, Brian Linse, Listen Missy, Loco Parentis, Lone Dissenter, LousDay, Derek Lowe, Rachel Lucas, Donald Luskin, Kieran Lyons, Megan McArdle, Dr. Manhattan, Jay Manifold, MCJ, MediaMinded, H.D. Miller, Jim Miller, MinuteMan, Misha, Chris Mooney, Moxie, Eric Muller, Iain Murray, Charles Murtaugh, Robert Musil, NanoDot, No Watermelons, Fredrik Norman, Brendan O’Neill, Obscure Store, Oliver & Watson, Andrew Olmsted, Dawn Olsen, Walter Olson, Howard Owens, OxBlog, Suman Palit, Damian Penny, Dan Perkins, Photon Courier, Tony Pierce, David Pinto, Stephen Pollard, Aziz Poonawalla, Jerry Pournelle, Max Power, Power Line, Allen Prather, Robert Prather, Quare, Bill Quick, Rabbit Blog, Rantburg, Eric S. Raymond, RealClearPolitics, Reverse Cowgirl, Right Wing News, Robin Roberts, Joel Rosenberg, Jason Rylander, The Safety Valve, Samizdata, John Scalzi, Craig Schamp, SCSU Scholars, Doc Searls, Andrea See, Donald Sensing, Arthur Silber, Silent Running, Geitner Simmons, Laurence Simon, Roger L. Simon, Lynn Sislo, SKBubba, Skippy, Soundbitten, Sour Bob, Sgt. Stryker, Mike Silverman, Rand Simberg, SmartGenes, Natalie Solent, SpinSanity, Spinsters, Spoons, Bjorn Staerk, Sari Stein, Reid Stott, Tacitus, TalkLeft, Kim du Toit, Tonecluster, Jim Treacher, Eve Tushnet, Ublog, Howard Veit, The Volokh Conspiracy, War Liberal, Will Warren, Dr. Weevil, John Weidner, Matt Welch, Oliver Willis, Winds of Change, Dave Winer, Tony Woodlief, Matthew Yglesias, Meryl Yourish, Pejman Yousefzadeh, Jay Zilber, and Zogby Blog]
[UPDATE: And Linkmeister]
[UPDATE UPDATE: And Mad Kane. And Peace Tree Farm. And Rook’s Rant. And Rant of Strongsad. And, of course, Sisyphus Shrugged. The fear of a FanapCo planet seems to be somewhat less prevalent than I’d anticipated.]





16 comments
Linkmeister
July 24, 2003 at 2:00 pm
1Discerning observers will note that my blog does not appear on that list. I have so far managed to fend off the rapacious behavior of FanapCo, and expect to continue to do so.
Note: This statement contains what could be considered “forward-looking statements” and there is no guarantee that the prospective results will be forthcoming.
adam
July 24, 2003 at 2:15 pm
2FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
FanapCo is pleassed to announce the acquisition of the “Linkmeister” blog, a longtime affiliate of Fanatical Apathy. FanapCo welcomes Linkmeister to the fine family of FanapCo Blogs.
Starting today, “Linkmeister” will focus on Fanatical Apathy-related issues and tasty Tex-Mex recipes.
Linkmeister
July 24, 2003 at 5:32 pm
3Aiyeee! Subsumed and absorbed!
I shudder to think how long looking up all those links took, Adam.
N in Seattle
July 24, 2003 at 7:36 pm
4FanapCo apparently isn’t quite as rapacious as they have been painted in the popular press. Even some blogs that have offered themselves up for assimilation have not yet been consumed (see second comment to this story).
Resistance may be futile, but rolling over and begging may be.
John Isbell
July 24, 2003 at 8:24 pm
5Well, rolling over and begging always worked well for me in school.
“A small cabal of Congressmen voted today to roll back the FCC’s new media ownership rules.”
Perfect.
grim reaper
July 24, 2003 at 9:01 pm
6DIE CORPERATE SCUM YOU WILL NEVER BUY ME OUT…..
err
$100 you say?
SOLD!
Mad Kane
July 25, 2003 at 4:39 am
7So, ya didn’t try to snarf me up. What’s the matter? Scared of recovering Court Street lawyers?
Mad “Evil Ex-Lawyer” Kane
PS Class action anyone? Enough takers and I might ditch the humor thing and go back to Court Street.
Rook
July 25, 2003 at 10:01 am
8You know, I offerred my blog up to you over a month ago, and still not a word. Find, hope you choke on the anti-monopoly suit headed your way.
Pppppppppththththththththfffffffffff!!!!!!!!!!!
julia
July 25, 2003 at 2:11 pm
9you know, you go to all the trouble of offering to sell your soul and the devil doesn’t even want it.
Fine. I assume you’ll be crushing me later.
sniff.
Lilith
July 26, 2003 at 12:02 am
10Jeez, we can’t get no respect. Even FanapCo doesn’t want to gobble us up so that we can’t compete. Yeesh.
Elayne Riggs
July 26, 2003 at 1:13 pm
11Ooh baby baby, I’m a wholly-owned subsidiary of FanApCo! Cool! I mean, um, Yes Master!
N in Seattle
July 26, 2003 at 1:49 pm
12We are pleased that negotiations with FanapCo were successfully completed. Please see our announcement for additional details.
Mad Kane
July 26, 2003 at 7:01 pm
13I shall be filing for class certification in Federal Court, Brooklyn next Wednesday. All who wish to be named plaintiffs in my suit against FanapCo and its sole owner, Adam Felber, (yes, I expect to pierce the corporate shield) should contact me ASAP @ madkane@dreamingofbigbucks.com
Advanced Calculus
July 26, 2003 at 8:33 pm
14You will never get Dumb Canuck instrument of Canadian Domination.
julia
July 26, 2003 at 11:46 pm
15now let’s talk 401K
Alex
July 27, 2003 at 12:52 pm
16Mad:
If you’re going for an anti-trust suit, count me in. I will fight to the death against FanapCo’s intolerable attempt to establish a monopoly in the vital blogging sector. Unless, of course, they buy me off by purchasing my blog at a ridiculously overpriced valuation. (About $10 should do it.)