According to USA Today, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and AT&T (NYSE: T) are expected to saunter up to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and explain why they will not allow Google's (NASDAQ: GOOG) free Google Voice application on the iPhone.

The problem is that Google is throwing stones while it lives in a glass house. Let me explain here -- Google has done the same thing to Skype when it blocked it from use with Google Android. This is truly the pot calling the kettle black, as Google is getting a taste of its own medicine. The question is, why can't these kids get together and play nice?

Clear Channel (NYSE: CCU) -

The U.S. Department of Justice announced it would require CCU to sell radio stations in four cities in order to win approval for its sale to Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital. Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital announced a $39.20 cash bid for CCU in early 2008.

CCU closed at $29.49 Wednesday.

CCU said: "The merger continues on track for a first quarter close." The Federal Communications Commission approved the deal in January.

CCU overall option implied volatility of 88 is above its 26-week average of 36 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price movement.

Option Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com

This week, another group added their support to a merger between the two satellite radio companies: XM Satellite Radio Holdings (NASDAQ: XMSR)'s and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRI). A quintet of organizations representing rural Americans presented a letter to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) head Jonathan Adelstein. An excerpt from the letter read:

"This merger is clearly in the best interest of rural consumers because it would allow a combined company to expand upon its existing services with increased efficiencies and at the same time provide rural listeners with more diverse programming and lower pricing ... [the merger] will make satellite radio a more viable option for rural consumers ... even in the most remote areas."

Indeed, a combination of the two companies could bring all 4 major sports, Oprah and Stern, and John Cougar Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen tunes, virtually commercial free, to households distanced from terrestrial broadcast towers.

Originally announced on February 19, 2007, this partnership continues to be closely scrutinized by the FCC as well as the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). The latter organization effectively represents the combined company's would-be competition, weakening the argument that the satellite-radio merger stifles competition. But I digress before I slip into a monopoly wormhole.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Media owners have been chomping at the bit to be able to own both a TV station and a newspaper in the same city. Two major deal makers - Samuel Zell, a Chicago investor who is leading the charge to take the Tribune Company (NYSE: TRB) private, and Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and CEO of News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) who has tried for years to change the rule so he can continue to control both the New York Post and the Fox television station in New York -- hope it happens soon. If the rules change for Zell, he'll be able to own TV stations and newspapers in five cities - New York, Los Angeles, Hartford and the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area.

Well they may get their wish if Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin has anything to say about it, according to the New York Times. The Times reports that Martin plans to repeal the decades-old media rule forbidding companies from owning both a newspaper and a TV or radio station in the same city. Right now an $8.2 billion buyout of the Tribune Company is hanging in the balance. Zell wants to take the company from a public to a privately held company by its employees, but the rule is in the way of completing the deal.

Business Week in the latest issue has outlined some key points in an upcoming Federal Communications Commission auction later this year for wireless spectrum.

Interestingly enough, the article is saying some view this as the last and best chance to create a broadband competitor to phone and cable companies. Interestingly, this is coming from Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), and Intel (NASDAQ: INTC).

The upcoming auction is for the UHF wireless spectrum that television channels are vacating when broadcasting goes digital in 2009. The attraction is the range and strength of the spectrum as it can penetrate buildings easily and even go underground. The spectrum also has a much farther range than any sort of of current WiFi and WiMAX networks. The government may pocket as much as $20 billion for this spectrum.

The bidding auction process will be determined by July. It will be of no real surprise if Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and others, like AT&T (NYSE: T), will try to keep the auction process the same as it has been. If no rules change for larger package deals to be auctioned, then the large technology companies will have to pass. If the process changes and the government opens this up, you could actually have technology and internet operators participating in building the actual infrastructure for lightning fast 3G as well.

You can always bet, however, on money and personal interests to get in the way of progress.

Jon Ogg can be reached at jonogg@247wallst.com; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.

In a huge victory for Walt Disney Co.'s (NYSE: DIS) ABC, General Electric Co.'s (NYSE: GE), CBS Corp. (NYSE: CBS), and News Corp's (NYSE: NWS) Fox, a federal appeals court said the FCC didn't have the right to fine stations and networks for broadcasting obscene language.

Of course, the networks are rejoicing and the FCC is fuming but this is a victory for the First Amendment and common sense. Much as we can decry the coarseness of our popular culture, the fact is that everybody including the president and vice president says bad words from time to time. This isn't a good thing, but it's reality.

The existing standards made it impossible for the broadcast networks to compete against racier fare on cable channels. They can't show the real world in which people in high-stress jobs like police officers, combat soldiers and emergency room doctors do occasionally say a bad word.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told the New York Times that if the government couldn't prohibit foul language during prime time then "Hollywood will be able to say anything they want, whenever they want." That's ridiculous.

For one thing, the networks are in a fight to the death for every last viewer. It's against their economic interest to broadcast content just to offend people. But the networks are bound to offend some viewers by showing even critically praised programs including "Saving Private Ryan."

The public has the right to see the real world reflected on their broadcast airways even if it is at times uncouth.