FCC Commissioner Tristani resigns

Gloria Tristani, the last commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission appointed by President Clinton, announced her resignation Monday. The move leaves three President Bush appointees and Michael Powell, who first served as a commissioner under Clinton then was reappointed by Bush as chairman of the FCC. Tristani will officially step down Sept. 7 after serving nearly four years. Before her stint on the FCC, Tristani served on the New Mexico State Corporation Commission in 1994 and served as SCC chairman in 1996. Tristani advocated the policy of ensuring that libraries and schools get adequate funding to supply Internet access. She was wary of the concentration of media ownership among the few, as shown by her dissenting vote in July against Fox Television's successful bid to acquire 10 television stations from Chris-Craft. Tristani also supported the interoperability of the popular instant messaging services from AOL and Yahoo during the FCC's investigation of the AOL Time Warner merger.