FCC Chair Forced to Compromise on Cable Regulation

"They're trying to hide the ball from their own team," Adelstein said in an interview last night. "That's why the data was suppressed -- because it conflicted with the outcome he sought."

Adelstein accused Martin's office of trying to "cook the books" to arrive at the 70 percent threshold.

McDowell called Martin's study "the only fig leaf that could be found to trigger an avalanche of unnecessary regulation" on the cable industry.

Last night, Martin said that nothing was suppressed and that he was trying to give fellow commissioners the most accurate data.

"We applaud the leadership of each commissioner who questioned and withstood the attempt to use incomplete data in order to justify greater regulation that is completely unwarranted by the competitive marketplace," said Kyle McSlarrow, president of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the trade group of big cable companies.

The messy fight over cable has caused some to question Martin's leadership of the FCC.

Last week, Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) sent a letter to Martin questioning his management style and asking how much time he had given the public to comment on certain issues and given fellow commissioners to study them.

"To maintain public confidence in the working of administrative agencies, it is critical that the agency decision-making process is transparent and open to public review and comment," Conyers wrote to Martin. "Yet recent media reports suggest that under your chairmanship, the FCC is conducting its decision-making in just the opposite manner."

An FCC official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of continued dealings with Martin, said: "We are getting a growing number of questions from the Hill asking about commission processes. There are a lot of legitimate concerns and problems."