Free Republic

The powers behind the FCC’s muscling of the Internet Today’s vote by a bitterly divided Federal Communications Commission that the Internet should be regulated as a public utility is the culmination of a decade-long battle by the Left. Using money from George Soros and liberal foundations that totaled at least $196 million, radical activists finally succeeded in ramming through “net neutrality,” or the idea that all data should be transmitted equally over the Internet. The final push involved unprecedented political pressure exerted by the Obama White House on FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, head of an ostensibly independent regulatory body. “Net...

Walking the floor of the Consumer Electronics Show last week, I kept thinking of that line from Jaws, “You’re going to need a bigger boat.” All the Internet-connected, data-hungry gadgets that are coming to market sent a strikingly clear message: we’re going to need faster broadband networks. Making sure the U.S. has super-fast, high-capacity, ubiquitous broadband networks delivering speeds measured in gigabits, not megabits isn’t just a matter of consumer convenience, as important as that is. It’s essential to economic growth, job creation and U.S. competitiveness. In our 21st century economy, innovation leadership is necessary for economic leadership. Our broadband...

The Sudden Disappearance of The Popular Quinn and Rose Morning Talk show from Clean Channel's lineup this morning is troubling!!

In 2008, Julius Genachowski served as candidate Barack Obama’s Chairperson of the Technology. Upon winning the Presidency, Obama thanked the lawyer by appointing him to serve as Chairman of the nation’s Federal Communications Commission. In September 2012, Genachowski instructed Commission staff to begin reviewing the Commission’s broadcast indecency policies and enforcement, arguing that present day indecency laws may not be in step with “First Amendment principles.”.....

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering whether to loosen restrictions for obscenity on broadcast television and radio. This rule change would allow brief “non-sexual-nudity” and isolated expletives in prime time, while children are still awake and watching TV. The FCC claims that it will consider the public’s sentiment as its members make a decision and has given Americans the month of April to file their comments. Outgoing FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski previously had to order the Enforcement Bureau only to tackle “egregious cases” because of the “backlog” of reported obscenity cases. In the last 6 months, the FCC’s caseload...

Barack Obama was a guest at the 1991 wedding of ABC senior foreign correspondent and vice presidential debate moderator Martha Raddatz, The Daily Caller has learned. Obama and groom Julius Genachowski, whom Obama would later tap to head the Federal Communications Commission, were Harvard Law School classmates at the time and members of the Harvard Law Review. After TheDC made preliminary inquiries Monday to confirm Obama’s attendance at the wedding, ABC leaked a pre-emptive statement to liberal-leaning news outlets including Politico and The Daily Beast Tuesday, revealing what may have been internal network pressure felt just days before Raddatz was...

Posted By Bryan Preston On October 10, 2012 @ 8:29 am In media,Politics | 52 Comments The Daily Caller has a disturbing story up today. The outline goes like this: The moderator of Thursday's vice presidential debate is Martha Raddatz of ABC News. She is the network's senior foreign correspondent, and she is the sole moderator of the veep debate, which will center on foreign policy.Raddatz has a connection with Barack Obama going all the way back to their days at Harvard. They worked on the Harvard Law Review together, and Obama attended her 1991 wedding. Fast forward to the...

ABC News told the Daily Caller Wednesday that vice presidential debate moderator and ABC News senior foreign correspondent Martha Raddatz was not at President Barack Obama’s wedding to Michelle in 1992. The news outlet, however, did not deny that Raddatz was invited to the Obama wedding when asked. Raddatz’s then husband, Julius Genachowski, was in attendance..An earlier investigation by TheDC revealed that Obama attended Raddatz’s wedding the year prior when she married Genachowski

The moderator of the lone October vice presidential debate was previously married to a top Obama official, an association both ABC News and the left-leaning Commission on Presidential Debates do not view as a conflict of interest. ABC Senior Foreign Correspondent Martha Raddatz, whose role as moderator was announced on August 13, was previously married to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski — an Obama appointee. Genachowki and Raddatz were married in 1991, the same year he graduated from Harvard Law School. Their marriage ended in 1997; the two have a son together. Raddatz does not report on the FCC...

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...