Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

How safe is Net Neutrality in February of 2009?

It has been a year since Ed Markey pushed this:

Now it’s time to see where we are today.

Well, for one thing, Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (My Senator from West Virginia) last week established a subcommittee on Communications & Technology, which would have a transparent, neutral net as its goal. Best of all, he made Sen. John Kerry (D – MA) the Chairman. Kerry has no love for the attempts by Comcast, AT&T and other corporate media giants in taking over the Internet.

This from Broadcasting & Cable:

Kerry is on the record as critical of the demise of the FCC’s fairness doctrine, calling that demise one of the “most profound changes in the balance of the media,” in a 2007 radio interview, adding that conservatives have been able to “squeeze down and squeeze out opinion of opposing views. I think it has been a very important transition in the imbalance of our public dialog.”

He also has been critical of media consolidation and pushed the FCC to allow unlicensed devices in TV white spaces, something broadcasters fought hard against.

Kerry teamed with then-Senator Barack Obama to try and block the FCC’s relaxation of the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban.

Kerry is also a fan of codifying network neutrality principles, something cable and phone networks would prefer evolved along with their industry.

We’ll all be watching to see what happens.

Under The LobsterScope

Well, for one thing, Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (My Senator from West Virginia) last week established a subcommittee on Communications & Technology, which would have a transparent, neutral net as its goal. Best of all, he made Sen. John Kerry (D – MA) the Chairman. Kerry has no love for the attempts by Comcast, AT&T and other corporate media giants in taking over the Internet.

This from Broadcasting & Cable:

Kerry is on the record as critical of the demise of the FCC’s fairness doctrine, calling that demise one of the “most profound changes in the balance of the media,” in a 2007 radio interview, adding that conservatives have been able to “squeeze down and squeeze out opinion of opposing views. I think it has been a very important transition in the imbalance of our public dialog.”

He also has been critical of media consolidation and pushed the FCC to allow unlicensed devices in TV white spaces, something broadcasters fought hard against.

Kerry teamed with then-Senator Barack Obama to try and block the FCC’s relaxation of the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban.

Kerry is also a fan of codifying network neutrality principles, something cable and phone networks would prefer evolved along with their industry.

We’ll all be watching to see what happens.

Under The LobsterScope


4 comments

  1. sricki

    god how I hate them. They have an agreement with my apartment complex — I have no choice. I’m stuck with them. Which means no MSNBC, no Turner Classic Movies. Two of the maybe… 5 channels I EVER want to watch? Owned by Republicans, no doubt.

  2. Let me tell you that their business model is no friend of the consumer or the free market.  If they have their way, all innovation will be stifled until it provides them with profits.  They hoard technology and stifle competition.

    Let me assure you that Net Neutrality is a two-layered crap sandwich.  It is intended to bleed the consumer and any content provider.  Content providers would need immense capital to compete with AOL, Time Warner or the Telco’s themselves.  The other and far more nefarious goal of Net Neutrality it to silence critical voices.  Left Blogistan would find itself in an IP backwater, viewable only by readers that can pass the double financial threshold placed on consumers and content providers.

    The status quo does not like all these people talking to each other, organizing, protesting and pointing out criminial, unethical behaviors or corruption.

    -gadfly

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