Free Republic

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski testified Wednesday that his agency takes calls to cancel Fox's broadcast licenses "very seriously." Groups, including Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), have urged the FCC to pull Fox's licenses because of evidence that its parent company News Corp. hacked people's phones in the United Kingdom to get stories. During a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) pressed Genachowski on whether he plans to do anything about the allegations. Genachowski said it wouldn't be appropriate to comment on a specific case, but that the commission is "certainly...

In a major victory for the National Legal and Policy Center, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) yesterday reversed itself and revoked a controversial waiver it had granted LightSquared, which would have allowed the company to deploy a national wireless network. The reversal is not only a major setback for LightSquared's billionaire owner Phil Falcone, but puts a harsh spotlight on the role of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. According to Cecelia Kang of the Washington Post Tech blog : The FCC's decision is expected to all but end LightSquared's aspirations to provide mobile broadband services via satellite airwaves -- a...

In his remarks, Genachowski said the program has been successful, but has also been plagued with problems of accountability and efficiency. Multiple service providers are often supplying Lifeline subsidies to the same households, he said, because there is no centralized system. To address the issue, Genachowski said, the draft proposal creates a national database of Lifeline users to prevent duplicative billing. It also sets a budget for Lifeline aimed at connecting eligible consumers while staying within budget, and requires that participating companies be subject to independent audits every two years.

A few years back, in the early 2000s to be exact, my son was writing for a tiny monthly independent newspaper in Fort Collins, Colorado.  The tilt of the outlet was decidedly left, but nevertheless the paper was its own self-contained entity and answered to no one but its own publisher.  David told me several times during his early journalistic days that the greatest danger the country was facing was the growing corporate centralization of news control.  From twenty-four or so corporations that once owned news media outlets, the number had shrunken to seven, he told me.  At the moment, I can...

Has Julius Genachowski, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), met his match in Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa)? Genachowski, a buddy of President Obama from Harvard Law School, has brought a culture of wheeling and dealing to the FCC, on whose decisions billions of telecom dollars often ride. Grassley says that he will hold up two nominations for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) until the Commission provides documents that he has requested relating to LightSquared, a broadband company owned by the Harbinger Capital hedge fund. LightSquared is at the center of a scandal involving accusations made first by...

There’s a White House scandal involving favoritism towards a specific company high on President Obama’s political agenda — and it’s not Solyndra. In this case, the company owner happens to be a big Democratic Party donor. And in the pursuit of giving preference to a specific company, the White House undercut a legendary four-star general and potentially undermined U.S. national security. Adding fuel to the explosive story: at one time President Obama was a personal investor, with $50,000 of his own money. A report by Eli Lake at the Daily Beast charges that the White House pressured U.S. Air Force...

When it rains, it pours. And there ain’t a big enough umbrella for all President Obama’s cronies and fixers to crowd under these days. While the Solyndra BGB (big green boondoggle) continues to blow up on Capitol Hill, the White House faces another pay-for-play backlash — this time from his own left flank. The liberal Daily Beast reports on a broadband project backed by a frequent Obama White House visitor and donor that has Pentagon officials concerned over potential military GPS interference. The Obama FCC took the lead in intervening on the donor, billionaire hedge fund manster Philip Falcone’s, behalf...

FCC officially kills Fairness Doctrine, wiping it from rules By Gautham Nagesh - 08/22/11 03:21 PM ET Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced the elimination of 83 outdated and obsolete agency rules on Monday, including the controversial Fairness Doctrine. “The elimination of the obsolete Fairness Doctrine regulations will remove an unnecessary distraction. As I have said, striking this from our books ensures there can be no mistake that what has long been a dead letter remains dead," Genachowski said in a statement. "The Fairness Doctrine holds the potential to chill free speech and the free flow of ideas and...

"The FCC gave the coup de grace to the fairness doctrine Monday as the commission axed more than 80 media industry rules," Politico's Brooks Boliek reported this afternoon: Earlier this summer FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski agreed to erase the post WWII-era rule, but the action Monday puts the last nail into the coffin for the regulation that sought to ensure discussion over the airwaves of controversial issues did not exclude any particular point of view. A broadcaster that violated the rule risked losing its license. While the commission voted in 1987 to do away with the rule — a legacy...

MMTC held its second annual Broadband and Social Justice Summit January 20-21, and was proud to welcome all five FCC Commissioners to speak on several topics. Four Commissioners spoke on day two, and Chairman Julius Genachowski paved the way for them on day one, delivering a generally forward-looking speech. Genachowski's speech focused on the state of the Digital Divide and avenues toward more broadband adoption, revamping spectrum, and the FCC's four part mobile broadband agenda. Using an illustration of his experience with the 2010 Consumer Electronic Show where every device required Internet access, the Chairman began by highlighting the necessity...

If you look at your phone bill, you might notice a fee tacked on for something called the Universal Service Fund. That surcharge is used to help connect underserved parts of America, mostly rural, with phone service. Well, now the Federal Communications Commission is starting work on a plan to convert that $8 billion fund. Instead of subsidizing phone service, it would instead help provide broadband Internet to underserved areas. And FCC chairman Julius Genachowski joins me to explain. Why don't you make your pitch, Chairman Genachowski? Why the need for change? Mr. JULIUS GENACHOWSKI (Chairman of the Federal Communications...

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski last week used the release of a new report on the information needs of communities as an opportunity to focus attention on the link between universal broadband availability and "healthy online journalism." ... The focus of Genachowski’s speech was a new 478-page online report, "The Information Needs of Communities," authored by veteran reporter, editor and online publisher Steve Waldman and members of the FCC staff. ... Genachowski said the report identifies areas in which the government, the private sector and nonprofits “can help make success possible for journalists and entrepreneurs that are trying to seize the...

We're thankful to hear Chairman Julius Genachowski to make that promise. We'll certainly hold him to it. But you will pardon us if we remain skeptical (and, in advance, if you hear a constant stream of "I told you so" from us in the months and years to come). If the Chairman is "peeved" at the suggestion that the FCC might be angling to extend its reach to include the Internet and new media platforms and content, perhaps he should start taking a closer look at what his own agency is doing — and think about the precedents he's setting...

On the reason.com website, there is an article titled "Internet cop", which is 5 long pages. In it, it lists some interesting things that should be discussed on their own. Despite its relative newness and its radical ideas, Free Press has had an outsized influence on the net neutrality debate. It has a former staffer in the FCC chairman’s office: In June 2009, Jen Howard left her job as press director for Free Press to become Genachowski's press secretary. The group also benefited from its longstanding alliance with MoveOn.org, a netroots giant with massive influence on progressive politics. Free Press...

The net neutrality vision for government regulation of the Internet began with the work of Robert McChesney, a University of Illinois communications professor who founded the liberal lobby Free Press in 2002. ......... For a man with such radical views, Mr. McChesney and his Free Press group have had astonishing influence. Mr. Genachowski’s press secretary at the FCC, Jen Howard, used to handle media relations at Free Press. The FCC’s chief diversity officer, Mark Lloyd, co-authored a Free Press report calling for regulation of political talk radio. ............... Considering how openly activist the Berkman Center has been on these issues,...

INTERNET GRABBERS House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa continues to demand answers from Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski over why the head of a supposedly independent federal agency visited the White House 81 times between January 2009 and November 2010. It was during this time that Genachowski and his staff were developing a regulatory scheme that would ultimately place control of the Internet in the hands of the FCC. Of special interest to Issa is a meeting held September 17, 2009, which took place four days before Genachowski made a speech at the Brookings Institute laying out the broad...

7 minute Video and footnotes at link. Last night, NLPC Chairman Ken Boehm appeared on Fox Business Network to describe political favoritism by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) that benefited Harbinger Capital, a hedge fund headed by billionaire Phil Falcone. NLPC first accused the FCC of favoritism in a February 2 request for an investigation by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). We pointed to large donations to Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, made the day after Falcone visited the White House, that appeared to be related to the FCC's fast track approval...

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is denying a charge that White House officials improperly influenced the commission’s net neutrality rules. In a November 2009 letter to Genachowski, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said media reports suggest “that Obama administration officials had knowledge of and potentially contributed to [the] crafting of” the controversial net neutrality rules. Specifically, Issa noted that a 2009 American Spectator article said a draft of the net neutrality rules had been circulated to Obama administration officials — and that Genachowski and President Barack Obama made suspiciously similar remarks about the rules on Sept. 21, 2009. Issa — then the...

President Obama on Tuesday used the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to impose government controls over the Internet. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's implementation of so-called "net neutrality" regulations offers a foretaste of the White House's shift to rule by unelected bureaucracy now that Republicans have regained control of the House of Representatives.For the first time ever, the FCC will regulate the way Internet companies are allowed to do business in the same way that the agency regulates 19th-century technologies such as the telephone. The red tape is being offered in the name of protecting Internet freedom and prohibiting companies from...

"For the first time, we'll have enforceable rules of the road to preserve Internet freedom and openness," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Tuesday morning. He said the rules offered "a strong and sensible framework—one that protects Internet freedom and openness and promotes robust innovation and investment." Republicans at the FCC and on Capitol Hill blasted the FCC's new rules, saying that they could stifle new investments in broadband networks and are unnecessary since there have been few complaints about Internet providers blocking or slowing web traffic. The FCC's action "is not motivated by a tangible competitive harm or market failure,"...

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, says Federal Communications Commission should be renamed the "Fabricating a Crisis Commission," following a vote by the panel's three Democrats to approve proposed rules that amount to a hostile takeover of the Internet by a government agency acting illegally. The proposal - misleadingly described by proponents as an attempt to insure "net neutrality" by guaranteeing equal access to the Internet - was introduced a year ago by Julius Genachowski, President Obama's appointee as FCC chairman. A federal court has ruled that the commission has no authority to regulate the Internet, and a bipartisan group of senators...

The Federal Communications Commission adopted new rules that will govern how Internet providers treat Web traffic and services, a move that sets the stage for a heated political battle on Capitol Hill come January. Led by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, the Democrats on the panel voted on Tuesday to approve the first enforceable net neutrality rules, which will prohibit Internet service providers such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from blocking access to lawful content and websites. Adopting the net neutrality order is a much-needed win for Genachowski, who has been trying to find a compromise on the divisive issue for...

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday approved a plan to regulate the Internet despite warnings that it could strangle industry investment and damage an economy that is still struggling to recover. The 3-2 vote fell along partisan lines with Democrats capitalizing on their numerical advantage. The rules would prohibit phone and cable companies from abusing their control over broadband connections to discriminate against rival content or services, such as Internet phone calls or online video, or play favorites with Web traffic. Lawmakers in both parties have been arguing for months that Congress, not the Obama administration, should take...

(CNN) -- The Federal Communications Commission is set to vote Tuesday on a set of regulations designed to ensure that internet providers grant everyone equal access to the Web. The "net neutrality" rules, proposed by the Obama administration, would be the government's biggest foray yet into one of the Web's fiercest debates. In announcing the proposed rules earlier this month, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said they would require high-speed internet providers to treat all types of Web content equally.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is making progress in narrowing gaps with his two Democratic colleagues over his controversial plan to adopt sweeping new rules for the Internet, National Journal has learned. But with the talks very fluid, and differences remaining, there's still a possibility that the regulatory initiative could be pulled at the last minute from the agenda of Tuesday's commission meeting. An FCC source familiar with the negotiations said progress is being made in three key areas: addressing concerns about wireless carriers, limiting Internet toll lanes and adding protections for a new online pricing model.

POWER GRAB: FCC Commissioner Calls for Gov Run ‘Values Test’, Control Over Minority Characters, Programming & Scheduling of TV (full title)

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) pushed back on Monday against a contention by a Democratic FCC commissioner that the government should create new regulations to promote diversity in news programming. Barton was reacting to a proposal made last week by FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, who in a speech suggested that broadcasters be subject to a new "public values test" every four years. "I hope … that you do not mean to suggest that it is the job of the federal government, through the [FCC], to determine the content that is available for Americans to consume,” Barton wrote Monday in a letter...

The First Amendment forbids Congress from infringing on Americans' right to free speech. But the Federal Communications Commission is not Congress. And Michael Copps, one of four FCC commissioners reporting to Chairman Julius Genachowski, seems intent on ignoring that pesky part of the First Amendment about "abridging the freedom of speech" when that speech is sent out over the airwaves. In two American Thinker articles earlier this year, I discussed possible FCC attempts to force progressive programming into broadcast media. Now, in addition to a nasty Christmas present that Genachowski wants to give Americans on December 21 (Net Neutrality), Copps...

Insight On Freedom. Socialist Regime Moves For Control of The Internet FCC will take first steps to control the Internet It’s called “Net Neutrality.” Sounds fair, right? I mean -- that’s what the liberal-socialist democrats are all about, right? Fairness is their utmost priority, right? Why, they’d never do anything to limit the freedom of Americans … riiiiight? If you believe all that, then prepare yourself for a rude awakening. When a political movement intends to takeover a nation’s government, one of the very first things it absolutely MUST DO … is take control of that nation’s communications networks. It...

Here’s betting FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s proposal on “preserving Internet freedom and openness” doesn’t touch the Institute for Global Communications (IGC) and its offshoot the Association for Progressive Communications (APC). In Net Neutrality, Julius style, some animals are always more equal than others. While some tend to see the Internet as FoxNews.com on one side and HuffPo on the other, it’s really WorldWide Net versus IGC/APC. Plebes of the Net Unite. While citizen journalist bloggers pay Internet server fees and worry about bandwidth, for decades now IGC has been funded by the Tides Foundation.

It's time to close the Federal Communications Commission. This week, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski gave a speech outlining his push for net neutrality, the absurd notion that the Internet should be "open and free" when in fact it's quite expensive to build. Net neutrality will straitjacket the U.S. economy's single most important driver of productivity and transformation. Besides the obvious question of whether the FCC even has the authority to regulate the Web—in April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said it doesn't—the agency has a long history of restraining trade. Founded in 1934 partly to regulate...

Regulation: In the name of fairness, a Federal Communications Commission plan to impose "net neutrality" without any legislative or legal authority will in effect be silencing a conduit for the truth that keeps us free. The Internet is once again under attack, not from hackers intent on spilling secrets or causing mischief, but by an administration intent on controlling the free flow of information that it views as a threat to its expanding power. According to the Hill, which obtained a copy of the FCC's tentative December agenda just after midnight Wednesday, the government agency will seek to impose rules...

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is putting together a net neutrality proposal and plans to take action on the controversial issue as early as next month, according to several sources with knowledge of the situation. Details of the proposal being developed by Genachowski’s office are unclear, but sources say it could be similar to the deal stakeholders tried to reach with Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) earlier this fall. [snip] While any net neutrality proposal will cause waves in the telecom world, sources say December is an ideal time for Genachowski to act on the issue because Republicans will not...

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski is putting together a net neutrality proposal and plans to take action on the controversial issue as early as next month, according to several sources with knowledge of the situation.

CAGW Names FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski May Porker of the Month (Washington, D.C.) - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski May Porker of the Month for his recent decision to push forward with an ill-conceived and possibly extra-legal plan to impose federal regulations on the Internet. The plan would treat the Internet by rules similar to those which currently pertain to the telephone industry under Title II of the Communications Act. “Chairman Julius Genachowski is leading the FCC into uncharted waters, straight into a legal headwind. In April, the U.S. Court of...

Complete title: FCC Moves to Regulate Internet--Even Though the Law Calls for Internet to be 'Unfettered by Federal or State Regulation' (CNSNews.com) – The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted on Thursday to begin the formal process of bringing the Internet under greater federal control – a move sought by both President Barack Obama and FCC Chairnman Julius Genachowski--even though federal law calls for an Internet "unfettered by Federal or State regulation." This step comes after the federal D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in April rebuked the FCC in its attempt to enforce a controversial regulatory doctrine called Net Neutrality, which  would allow the government...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-president-national-broadband-plan Home • Briefing Room • Statements & Releases The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release March 16, 2010 Statement from the President on the National Broadband Plan America today is on the verge of a broadband-driven Internet era that will unleash innovation, create new jobs and industries, provide consumers with new powerful sources of information, enhance American safety and security, and connect communities in ways that strengthen our democracy. Just as past generations of Americans met the great infrastructure challenges of the day, such as building the Transcontinental...

Move over, health care reform, climate change, and the economy. Judging by White House visits by various government agency heads, the Obama administration instead appears preoccupied with the re-regulation of communications, media, and the Internet. The Administration has just released logs of all visitors to the White House and Executive Office Buildings from Obama’s inauguration through August—including a staggering 47 visits by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski. By contrast, no other major agency head logged more than five visits. Chairman Genachowski obviously has an audience with those at the highest levels of power, including the President himself, but...

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski appeared to have visited executive branch offices 47 times between January 20 and August 31, according the the White House visitors log released today. By comparison, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner made only five appearances. Genachowski has had plenty to discuss with White House officials. Future disclosures will likely show a good number of more recent visits to talk about telecom issues--namely, his net neutrality proposals that reportedly caught some top technology and economic officials off-guard. The visitors log includes visits to the Executive Office Buidling, the Office of Management and Budget, and other White House-affliated offices.

Just how far is the Obama administration willing to go to reward big donors? In the wake of yesterday’s explosive report regarding “scores of top Democratic donors” being rewarded with “VIP access to the White House, private briefings with administration advisers and invitations to important speeches and town-hall meetings,” it’s a question that’s on the minds of many politically-engaged Americans, and one likely to grab yet more attention, thanks to this article in today’s USA Today. It notes that: “More than 40% of President Obama’s top-level fundraisers have secured posts in his administration, from key executive branch jobs to diplomatic...

Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, plans to propose a new so-called net neutrality rule Monday that could prevent telecommunications, cable and wireless companies from blocking Internet applications, according to sources at the agency. Genachowski will discuss the rules Monday during a keynote speech at The Brookings Institute. He isn't expected to drill into many details, but the proposal will specifically be for an additional guideline on how operators like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast can control what goes on their networks. That additional guideline would prevent the operators from discriminating, or act as gatekeepers, of Web content and...

Julius Genachowski, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, plans to propose a new so-called net neutrality rule Monday that could prevent telecommunications, cable and wireless companies from blocking Internet applications, according to sources at the agency. Genachowski will discuss the rules Monday during a keynote speech at The Brookings Institute. He isn't expected to drill into many details, but the proposal will specifically be for an additional guideline on how operators like AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast can control what goes on their networks. That additional guideline would prevent the operators from discriminating, or act as gatekeepers, of Web content and...

President-elect Barack Obama intends to nominate his technology adviser, Julius Genachowski, to head the Federal Communications Commission, a Democratic source close to the Obama transition team said.

Kevin Martin, a Republican who chaired the U.S. Federal Communications Commission for four years, said on Thursday he would be leaving the agency when the new administration takes over. Martin will become a fellow at the Aspen Institute in Washington, a conservative think tank. His departure is effective Tuesday, the day U.S. President-elect Barack Obama will be sworn in. His exit will leave the normally five-member commission with one Republican and two Democrats for a time as lawmakers face a long list of new appointments to confirm. Obama is expected to name technology executive Julius Genachowski, a former FCC staffer,...

While Kevin Martin closes out his final major tour of the U.S. like a diva, the future FCC is getting closer to becoming a reality. The first FCC commissioner to leave was Deborah Taylor Tate who resigned December 30th. I hope Martin is lining up his next job because he will be replaced as FCC Chairman and the betting is that Obama Harvard bud Julius Genachowski will get the nod. That leaves Commissioners Copps and Edelstein, the highly regarded commonsense and caring commissioners who think like Obama people - about delivering competitive voice and broadband options to all Americans. Copps...