Ars Technica (10/26/22) called Gigi Sohn “the tiebreaking vote needed to reverse Trump-era deregulation of the broadband industry [and] restore net neutrality rules.”
Media democracy advocate Gigi Sohn, nominated to the Federal Communications Commission in October 2021 (FAIR.org, 4/19/22, 6/15/22, 10/28/22), still awaits a confirmation vote in the Senate—which means the public still awaits a functioning FCC that can protect its interests.
This month President Joe Biden renominated the highly qualified Sohn, whose confirmation has now been stalled for a record-breaking amount of time. With a 50/50 split in the Senate, Democrats had failed to muster enough support for a vote in the face of strong opposition from deep-pocketed big media corporations like Comcast.
The FCC has been operating without a fifth member for well over a year, which has left it deadlocked with two Democratic and two Republican members. That’s great news for the telecom industry, which is enjoying the FCC’s inability to do things like restore net neutrality (which was implemented under Obama and repealed under Trump), ensure equal access to broadband, prevent further consolidation of big media, and crack down on wireless carriers’ abuse of private user location data.
Sohn’s renomination, and the record-breaking delay on her vote, have been met with virtual radio silence in news media. Only a small handful of newspapers and online news outlets have covered the nomination; FAIR could find no mentions on TV news in a search of the Nexis news database.
In one noteworthy exception, the Mercury News and East Bay Times editorial boards published an editorial (1/19/23) supporting Sohn’s nomination and declaring, “Enough is enough.” In addition to highlighting Sohn’s qualifications, the Silicon Valley-based editors pointed to “the importance of net neutrality” to the tech industry, which depends on “fair, open competition in the content market.”
Verge (11/3/22): “There are really two companies that have been literally financing a campaign to stop the Senate from confirming Gigi Sohn, and those two companies are Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation and Comcast.”
A handful of smaller online publications like American Prospect, the Verge, TechDirt and ArsTechnica are the only non-right-wing outlets to consistently cover the battle over Sohn’s confirmation, despite its importance to every person in this country who watches TV, uses the internet or has a cell phone.
As we pointed out last year (6/15/22), while Fox News had made repeated attacks on Sohn, MSNBC—which has reported on several other blocked Biden nominees—had not mentioned her name on air once since her initial nomination. In the seven months since then, what passes for a left-leaning cable network has still failed to speak Sohn’s name. (MSNBC.com did publish one guest column about digital redlining—10/27/22—that advocated for Sohn’s confirmation to address the issue.) CNN has also been silent on Sohn, though a CNN Business article (CNN.com, 7/19/22) on net neutrality mentioned that “the Senate has yet to confirm Gigi Sohn, Biden’s nominee to fill the fifth and final seat on the commission.”
Cable news isn’t directly regulated by the FCC, whose purview is public, not private, communications infrastructure. But note: Fox News is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Fox Broadcasting Company; MSNBC is owned by telecom behemoth Comcast, which has been actively lobbying against Sohn (Ars Technica, 1/13/22); and CNN is now owned by fellow telecom giant AT&T.
Media conglomerates will always have armies of lobbyists to make their interests heard at the FCC; the public interest needs to overcome a media blockade to get its representative on the board.
You can contact your senators about the Sohn nomination (or anything else) here.
Hum, as this is the third article published FAIR within the past 13 months about Gigi Sohn’s nomination to the FCC, its becoming very clear FAIR has a dog in this hunt. Losing credibility alt-media to my way of thinking people. No donation from me this year.
Good point. With all the crazy stuff going on in the world today and with plenty to write about – a 3rd article – promoting Sohn. Like who really cares about this in the big picture? Smells like Gigi is someone’s ‘best friend’ or perhaps a relative from FAIR. Good pick up Aadila.
HMMMM, but Waheed;
Many of us want to know WHY CONGRESS DOES NOTHING. MAYBE BIDEN SHOULD STEP UP AND SAY WHY WE NEED HER.
(Perhaps the Dems give up too quickly ( on quite a few things)
Thanks, Julie, for this very very important article.
Indeed. The regulation of media must not be left to the media themselves, rather than to well-qualified public servants whose loyalty to those media is unbought. Given the vast amounts of private money pouring into right-wing media and the relative paucity of funds for the Left, someone not in hock to the corporations ought to be in charge, don’t you think?
“Steven Crowder, a right-wing blowhard with a YouTube show, was recently offered $50 million to sign with Ben Shapiro’s company The Daily Wire for four years. Crowder rejected the offer, reportedly demanding even more money ($30 million a year) and likening it to a “slave contract”.”
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2023/01/why-left-media-needs-your-support
‘Paucity of funds for the Left’ Hah!! As it happened George Soros poured $150M into lefty super PAC’s ahead of the 2023 midterms by virtually all accounts. The most by an one individual, left or right, so what was your point again?
No one gives a shit about ‘Gigi’ Sohn for the seventh time. There is a LOT more out there of importance to cover.
Massively wealthy capitalist, utterly non-socialist George Soros – oh, isn’t it always him, the nasty bogeyman of the far Right? – has nothing to do with the Left’s tiny media presence such as Jacobin or Current Affairs. Isn’t that what the article was about, not Mr Soros and elections in the USA? I and many others care about who owns and who regulates the media here in the UK and especially in the USA which has vast influence over the globe. Your attempts to pretend it doesn’t matter, that the media can look after itself, is just misdirection.
Oh no Soros is hard left by any reasonable definition and person. I believe you actually mean Marxist or Communism. Go ahead, its OK as you are writing in FAIR. Just say it out loud and be honest.