FCC Lobbying: A Handbook of Insider Tips and Practical Advice.

• Author: Sterling, Christopher H.

FCC Lobbying: A Handbook of Insider Tips and Practical Advice, Erwin G. Krasnow, David R. Siddall, and Michael D. Berg, Washington: Telecommunications Reports International, 2001, 225 pages.

This handbook is exactly what the well-heeled lobbyist--or would-be lobbyist--needs. Three experienced Washington communications attorneys, with input from a number of other individuals, have pooled their backgrounds and insights to create a desk-top guide to working the FCC system, or, as they might prefer to say, making the system work. As immediate past FCC chairman Bill Kennard says in his brief foreword, "you need this book," and he goes on to note that even he "learned a thing or two" from it, despite a career as a practicing attorney before becoming a regulator.

Admittedly the world of Washington can be a morass, especially tot the noninitiated. Even those of us who live and work here can lose track of the roads that lead to the information we need, if only because those roads keep being rerouted. For example, agencies change their document release (or Web posting) process, rules concerning who can talk to whom are modified, people shift jobs, and computer systems designed to make things better often make them much worse. In addition, there is always the time factor; there is seemingly never enough time to get the information one needs, or to communicate views that must reach policymakers.

All of the aforementioned factors led these seasoned attorneys to assemble the advice in this book. Also motivating the authors were three more trends: the continuing pace of technological change; the dramatic shifts wrought by the 1996 Telecommunications Act; and the trend towards business consolidation. To these, we might now add the uncertainty of an economy in recession after the events of September 11, 2001. Though published well before those terrible events, it is interesting that the authors sought to create an information oasis of sorts; "a source of sustenance in what can be a harsh landscape."

This book kicks off by offering the reader a lobbying strategy--what this means and how to develop one. Right away one sees the value of this guide in its clear organization of checklists, which seem to be designed for busy readers. First, we learn why an overarching strategy is important. The authors then explain how to most efficiently assess the regulatory ground, how to develop a plan of action, and whether or not it might be a good idea to join a coalition...