As you would expect from a media watcher, i'm a fan of a lot of Michael Moore's stuff. I recently finished reading Michael Moore's book Stupid White Men (2001) and came across the following:

Secretary of State-Colin Powell

"When not fighting wars, Powell sat on the boards of Gulfstream Aerospace and AOL. Gulfstream makes jets for both Hollywood honchos and foreign governments like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. During his time at AOL the company merged with Time Warner, and Powell's stock rose in value by $4 million. At the time, Colin's son, Michael Powell, had been the only Federal Communications Commission (FCC) member who advocated that the AOL/Time Warner merger go through without question. Powell's son has since been named chairman of the FCC by George W. Bush; part of his job is to oversee the activities of AOL/Time Warner. He will also oversee any regulation of AOL's monopolistic "instant messaging" technology."

--Michael Moore 'Stupid White Men' (2001)

If you look a couple of pages down you'll see my post about what's been happening recently with the FCC and Michael Powell's involvement in the rise of global media conglomerates and their über-merging. I could say a lot about this, but i'll leave it for another day. However, of interest here is the following press statement in the last week and keeping Moore's statement in mind.

Thursday August 21, 5:21 AM

AOL gets FCC nod on advanced instant-messaging
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AOL Time Warner, operator of the world's biggest online service, on Wednesday won permission from communications regulators to offer advanced instant messaging services like live video streaming.

The Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to lift a condition it imposed when America Online bought Time Warner in 2001 for fear it would dominate the emerging real-time messaging market when married with video or audio.

The agency agreed to lift the requirement after AOL convinced regulators it had lost market share to well-financed rivals including Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc.

AOL's market share in the instant messaging market had slipped to 58.5 percent as of earlier this year, from 61.5 percent in late 2000, according to Media Metrix figures.

Instant messaging is a popular Internet function that allows individuals or groups to have real-time text discussions, but providers have been developing more advanced services to lure more customers.

"Removal of the condition will benefit consumers through the addition of a third significant competitor to the advanced instant messaging-based high-speed video services market," FCC Chairman Michael Powell, who voted in support to lift the ban, said in a statement.

AOL Time Warner said the instant messaging market had become more competitive and Powell noted that neither consumer advocates nor the company's competitors protested lifting the condition.

Yet, the two Democrats on the FCC, Jonathan Adelstein and Michael Copps, voted against lifting the condition, stating that it was premature because the market for such advanced services had not fully developed.

"As a matter of policy, the goal of open, interoperable Internet communications services justified this condition as serving the public interest, and nothing in the petition convincingly shows otherwise," the two commissioners said in a joint statement.

AOL has already planned to offer the ability to send recorded video clips and have voice conversations through instant messaging in the next version of its online service, AOL 9.0. But, the software will not feature live streaming video at its September launch.

"This decision, which will allow AOL to fully compete in advanced IM services, will clearly benefit consumers through increased choice and innovation," said AOL spokeswoman Tricia Primrose.

AOL Time Warner shares fell 25 cents, or 1.56 percent, to close at $15.75 on the New York Stock Exchange.