What is the most amazing to me about this latest power grab by the bureaucracy is how successfully the establishment media has muted the voices of dissent. The dissent has been vigorous and compelling, but unpublicized.
I first noticed this on the morning the net neutrality rules were announced, when our local KTAR radio station said that these new rules were all good news for the consumer.
The USA Today article announcing the new rules said “The historic vote on the proposal, pitched by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, elicited hearty cheers from a wide array of technology companies and consumer groups,” and it told us the rules would make sure Internet service providers treat all content equally. How sweet. There is no mention of any dissenting voices.
The NPR story also mentions a number of arguments in favor of the rules and likewise censors out all the dissent. It does mention that the FCC’s 2010 attempt to institute net neutrality rules was overturned by the courts, but in a stunning obfuscation, it makes no mention of the reason, but instead implies that the problem with those rules was that they didn’t go far enough.
The Wall Street Journal article doesn’t mention the dissent either. It does have a three-minute video that devotes 20 seconds to the dissent, which it then shoots down. In fact, if you search on Google for “net neutrality rules” the entire first page is populated with apologists.
There is no mention anywhere of the 1996 Communications Act which prohibits the Federal Government from regulating broadband Internet services. You have to dig to find a statement by Senator Mike Lee to learn about that. There is no mention that in 2010 the courts overturned the FCC’s attempt to regulate the Internet because it has no legal authority to do so. There is no mention of the arguments of the two dissenting commissioners. You have to really dig to get that information.
Dissenting commissioner Ajit Pai has been making a compelling case against these rules. Not only does he agree that the FCC overstepped its legal authority in issuing these rules, he has categorically declared that Net Neutrality is “a solution that won’t work for a problem that doesn’t exist.” And he warned that we will become like Europe, where similar government regulation exists, where innovation is being smothered.
Take a step back from all this establishment propaganda and think for yourself for a minute. Is their any clamor for actions on problems with the Internet? Has my Internet service provider tried to censor my access to any sites? The Wall Street Journal video warns me that my provider could do this. They cited one example of a provider that did that once, but there was an outcry from consumers and they quickly reversed themselves.
I like that system. But try protesting when the government does something like that. Do we really think that more government control leads to more freedom? And hasn’t the freedom that exists on the Internet been what has fed the robust innovation? Clearly the Internet is not broken. But there are many on the Left who are uncomfortable with that degree of freedom–they feel threatened. And I’m sure that is behind Obama’s desire to get the government’s foot in this door.
Nor is there any mention in any of these articles cited about the unseemly pressure that Obama has been putting on the FCC to get these new rules passed. Nor of the unseemly lack of transparency in the way the rules were handled. And good luck finding the comment that FCC chairman Tom Wheeler made about the illegality of what the commission has done. Since the 2010 decision declaring that the FCC doesn’t have the authority it just seized, the DC Circuit has been packed with leftists thanks to Harry Reid manipulation of Senate Rules. Wheeler, in apparent reference to this, in essence said, “So good luck in your legal challenge. Ha, ha.”
When the All Star Panel on Special Report was asked about this yesterday, even liberal Kirsten Powers expressed serious reservations about these rules, while the moderates/conservatives (George Will and Charles Krauthammer) were categorically against them. But to the public, through the establishment news outlets, net neutrality is all good news.
Scary, how dissent is being covered up by our corrupt media.
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