Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell is losing another
top aide just a little more than two months after completing an exhausting and
controversial rewrite of the agency's broadcast-ownership rules.
Chief of staff Marsha MacBride announced Monday that she is stepping down from her
post.
Her resignation follows the July exit of Powell's media adviser, Susan Eid.
"It is with difficulty that I choose to leave my post as chief of staff at this
time," MacBride said in a prepared statement. "Although the chairman has a
challenging agenda ahead of him, the time is right for me to pursue new
opportunities."
Powell accepted her resignation "with deep regret."
After a brief stint as The Walt Disney Co.'s vice president of government relations,
MacBride rejoined the commission in January 2001 to serve as Powell's senior
staffer.
She was also heading the agency's Homeland Security Policy Council.
During a prior 10-year tenure at the FCC, MacBride served as media adviser to
Powell.
She also led the FCC's Task Force on Year 2000 Conversion. And she has
served as an advisor to former commissioner James Quello and as an attorney in the
Political Programming Branch of the old Mass Media Bureau's Enforcement
Division, acting deputy chief of the Cable Services Bureau and senior legal
advisor to the Mass Media Bureau.
