Staffers at the Federal Communications Commission with ties to
the commission’s chairman, Julius Genachowski,
coordinated media and strategy planning with senior Free Press and
MoveOn.org officials in the run up to Genachowski’s announcement
that he would be seeking an FCC vote on imposing so-called “net
neutrality” rules on broadband and the Internet, and doing so when
Congress is out of session during the Thanksgiving and Christmas
recesses.
“Net neutrality” is a policy proposal that would
essentially strip the control and traffic management of broadband
networks from those companies that deployed them and make them run
properly, and transfer much of that oversight to the federal
government. Under the proposal rumored to be under consideration by
the FCC, network operators such as AT&T and Comcast would not
be allowed to offer consumers prioritized service or quality of
service guarantees for such things as movie downloads and video
streaming.
“It essentially turns the networks into dumb pipes, so you
have billions of people going online and no one is really managing
the traffic in a way so that consumers have a good experience,”
says an FCC staffer for a Republican commission member. “People
don’t realize how much video and communications comes over their
broadband lines. This is the left’s attempt to rein in things like
Fox News, Pajamas Media, Internet radio broadcasts for Limbaugh and
Levin — anything that is data-related or video-related that
requires some high-tech network management would be degraded or
limited by the imposition of net neutrality.”
Congressional Republicans (and even some Democrats) have
stated that they do not believe the FCC has the statutory standing
to impose such rules — which would reclassify broadband and
Internet services as “telecommunications services” and bring them
under rules that were developed for the rotary phone back in the
1930s — without guidance from Congress. More than 100 members from
both parties formally requested that the FCC take no action until
the House and Senate had had a chance to weigh in on the
matter.
But with the Obama Administration quickly losing its own
standing with its radical base as it prepares to surrender to
Republicans on the Bush tax cut renewals and possible budget cuts,
“We need to give our people a win, and right now, [net neutrality]
is the only win we will probably be able to give them for at least
the next six to eight months,” says a White House
official.
About a week ago it appeared that nothing would be done at
the FCC, and Free Press, the leftist group founded by Marxist
Robert McChesney and financed by George
Soros, was due to host a media call to demand FCC action.
But that call was canceled without explanation and rescheduled for
Monday, November 22, at which point Free Press was able to tout
news to its membership that the FCC appeared prepared to act on the
neutrality policy.
“We were told [last week] to hold our fire and reschedule
our call,” says a Free Press media aide, who requested anonymity
for fear of reprisals. “We have friends inside the FCC and they
told us that if we just waited a few days, there would be good news
for us to announce to our membership. More senior people knew what
was happening over there and even had the dates for the ruling
circulation and the FCC meeting schedule so we could plan events to
support Genachowski and the Democratic commissioners.”
Speaking with outside public interest groups or industry
officials is not forbidden at the FCC, though in the case of an
issue like “net neutrality,” FCC staff involved at any level with
the decision making process are required to publicly file an ex
parte notice about any discussions related to the policy issue they
have with outside groups. To date, no ex parte filings have been
filed related to any contact a senior FCC official might have had
with senior officials at Free Press. A number of current FCC
officials have ties to Free Press, including Jen
Howard, currently spokesperson for Genachowski, who
formerly was a spokesperson for Free Press.
In the past year, Free Press has been caught in several
ethics missteps related to its claims of not lobbying Democrats on
Capitol Hill or at the FCC. In one instance, the group was caught
drafting letters to be published under the names of liberal
Democrats addressed to the FCC and intended to influence that
decision-making body. Republicans on Capitol Hill have already made
it clear that oversight of the FCC will be a priority for the House
Energy and Commerce Committee.
As it stands, the FCC will release the planned rulemaking
for net neutrality while Congress is out of town on Thanksgiving
recess, and would vote on the rules on December 21, when Congress
is on Christmas recess. “In short, they are doing this in such a
way that it is rubbing our noses in it,” says a Republican staffer
on House Energy and Commerce. “Unless folks just rise up and make
noise about this, there isn’t much we can do until after the new
year when we get back and have control of the
committee.”
