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https://www.theverge.com/23437518/biden-fcc-gigi-sohn-fox-news-comcast-senate-democrats-midterms-election>
"Today, we’re just talking about a problem. That problem is the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) is currently short a commissioner, and the
Biden administration and Senate Democrats just can’t seem to get that seat
filled despite having nominated an amazingly qualified person. Her name is Gigi
Sohn. The inability to get Gigi confirmed at the FCC has left the commission
deadlocked with two Democrats and two Republicans. That means the commission in
charge of regulating all telecom in the United States, including how you get
your internet service, is unable to get much done. And the Biden administration
can’t accomplish some of its biggest policy priorities, like expanding rural
broadband and restoring net neutrality. President Biden first nominated Gigi
Sohn to the FCC over a year ago, but the full Senate vote to confirm her just
hasn’t happened.
We’ve been digging into this story for a few months now, trying to figure out
what’s going on here, and we found a simple but really frustrating answer.
“It’s corruption. I mean, we can call it a lot of things, but what we’re
witnessing is just ordinary corruption,” Karl Bode told us. Karl is a veteran
telecom reporter. I’ve known him forever, and he is one of many people we
talked to for this story.
We’re doing something a little different with this episode of
Decoder. You’re
going to hear from a bunch of in-the-know people about what happened to Gigi
Sohn’s FCC nomination and why it matters. This story has strange crisscross
alliances, behemoth bad actors, shady politicking, and even some good
old-fashioned family drama. But most of all, it reveals a lot about the huge
problems plaguing politics and policy in the United States today. Karl
again: “I’ve covered the telecom sector for I think 22 years, and I’ve never
seen anything quite as shady as this.”
And just so you know, here’s a list of people and organizations we reached out
to about this episode of
Decoder who refused to speak to us on the record:
Fox News, Comcast, the Fraternal Order of Police, former FCC Chairman Ajit Pai,
Democratic Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, Republican Senator Roy
Blunt, the Biden administration, Verizon, the former Speaker of the Arizona
House Republican Kirk Adams, former Democratic US Senator Heidi Heitkamp, FCC
Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, and FCC nominee Gigi Sohn. It’s a wild one."
Via Dave Farber.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
