WealthTV asked the FCC to reconsider the dismissal of its complaint (CD June...

of FCC personnel including Commissioner Meredith Baker leaving to work for the cable industry raises fresh questions about the agency’s handling of its program carriage complaint. The defendants were Bright House Networks, Comcast, Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable. WealthTV said the commission’s response to its Freedom of Information Act request (CD May 13 p1) for materials on Baker’s recusal during the time she was a commissioner and considering employment with Comcast, where she went to work, was incomplete. “Answers have not been provided” about the involvement of Baker’s staff on the program carriage case during her month-and-a-half-long recusal, WealthTV said in a petition for reconsideration filed Wednesday in docket 08-214 (http://xrl.us/bkz22j). “Unfortunately, questions pertaining to Commissioner Baker’s or her staff’s otherwise prohibited participation seriously underscore questions about the ‘revolving-door’ involvement of Commission employees in this matter, which have risen to a level that cannot be ignored. For example, in addition to the situation of former Commissioner Baker, Christina Pauzé, a former Legal Advisor for Media Issues to Commissioner McDowell and now working at Time Warner Cable was personally and substantially involved in the WealthTV complaint proceeding and had numerous interactions with WealthTV.” The agency should review the conduct of Baker; Pauzé; Rudy Brioche, a former aide to ex-Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein who now works for Comcast; and Rick Chessen, ex-aide to Commissioner Michael Copps who now works for NCTA. Spokespeople for the NCTA and Time Warner Cable had no comment. “Wealth TV’s program carriage claims and multiple ancillary motions and filings have been fully litigated and rejected at every stage of the proceeding,” a Comcast spokeswoman said. That includes “a strong, comprehensive opinion by the independent administrative law judge.” Richard Sippel issued the recommended decision against WealthTV and for Comcast and the other three cable-operator defendants in 2009, and the commission’s decision last month to uphold his recommendation wasn’t voted on by Baker because she had recused herself from all proceedings. The regulator should see if their “actions run afoul of the letter or spirit of the federal ethics rules,” WealthTV said of the former commission personnel. “Given known facts, reconsideration of this matter is appropriate to ensure that the Commission’s ‘adjudicatory processes remain above reproach'” A spokeswoman for the Media Bureau, which wrote the WealthTV order dismissing its complaint, declined to comment. WealthTV asked the regulator to reopen its decision to adopt an administrative law judge’s finding against the program carriage complaint “and remand the matter for further proceedings, including re-hearing, as may be appropriate, or such other proceedings as may be necessary or appropriate."