Jim Weaver, the ARRL Director for the Great Lakes Division, made the
following comment about BPL in his newsletter:

wrote:

A confession: We [the ARRL] failed to recognize the FCC position on BPL had
nothing to do with science and technology. We did not recognize
initially the FCC position was a simple example of blatant, misguided
partisan economics (I don't mean political party partisanship). As a
result, we approached the discussion from a basis of science and
technology. The realization of the political nature of the situation
is one major reason we developed the ARRL Legislative Action Program.
We need your participation in this program. Please contact me at
to learn how you can help.

Interesting! In my opinion, "Blatant, misguided economics" seems to be
about as close as you can come to saying "The fix is in" and "Payola"
without actually saying it.

Welcome to the return of the "Whorehouse Years" at the FCC...