As expected, President  Obama has officially tapped his campaign’s top technology adviser, Julius Genachowski, to head the Federal Communications Commission.

A longtime Obama buddy dating back to Harvard Law, Genachowski  certainly has the creds. He  worked at the FCC during the Clinton administration, was legal counsel to ex-FCC chairman Reed Hundt, a co-founder of  the venture-capital firm LaunchBox Digital and was an exec at Barry Diller's IAC/InterActive Corp. for eight years.

You know the recession is bad when K Street, the center of Washington’s lobbying powerhouse, starts shedding jobs.

Now two of the entertainment industry’s biggest trade associations -- the Recording Industry Assn. of America and the Motion Picture Assn. of American -- are shrinking. Facing budget and staff cuts, the RIAA just let go about one-third of its 75-member staff around the country, and the MPAA cut about 20 percent of its jobs in Los Angeles and Washington.

So, with as much as 25 percent of its operating budget slashed, how does the Motion Picture Assn. of America maintain its fight against Hollywood Enemy No. 1?

(That would be piracy, not Osama bin Laden.)

"We're going to have to be more focused … and do more with less," said an MPAA spokesman.

Translation: the battle on piracy has taken a hit.

Actor and activist George Clooney has already brought his plea for peace in Darfur to the White House. In separate meetings last month, he pressed both President Obama and Vice President Biden to resuscitate diplomatic efforts to end the atrocities and starvation in  war-torn Sudan.

Last week, it was Eminem trying – and failing – to get artists a bigger piece of the downloading pie.

Now it’s Smashing Pumpkins, up against radio.

Billy Corgan, the group’s founder and lead singer, has joined the roster of top-name artists who have appeared on Capitol Hill in the last few weeks seeking compensation for artists whose music is broadcast on FM/AM.