The FCC’s Plan To Take Over The Internet Has Begun

(Hat tip: KimR) - “It’s not a government takeover of the Internet.” That was the mantra of those who backed the Federal Communication Commission’s “net neutrality” rules, which the FCC approved a little over a year ago. Read more at Investor's Business Daily Read More......

Obama’s FCC Plans Sale of U.S. Media to Foreigners

If you think it’s hard to get unbiased news from radio and TV now, just wait until your local broadcast stations and other media properties are owned and operated by the Chinese, Russian or Mexican governments, or the Muslim Brotherhood. --Amazingly, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants to make it easier for foreigners to buy and run local radio and TV stations. The federal entity that monitors the media is proposing more foreign ownership of the U.S. media in the name of “diversity.”

Read more at Accuracy in Media
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Here Comes Obamanet: FCC Move Would Make Tens of Millions Eligible for Broadband Internet Subsidies

The Federal Communications Commission, fresh off its establishment of net neutrality, is seeking to expand a federal aid program, which provides lower-income Americans with free cellphone use, to also include broadband Internet access. The New York Times reported on the FCC’s regulatory proposal:

On Thursday… Tom Wheeler, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, will circulate a plan to his fellow commissioners suggesting sweeping changes to a $1.7 billion subsidy program charged with ensuring that all Americans have affordable access to advanced telecommunications services, according to senior agency officials.

Read more at IJ Review
(Hat tip: Susan N.) Read More......

FCC: Broadband Providers Not Entitled to First Amendment Protections

Two weeks after passage, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) finally released its landmark “net neutrality” regulations Thursday morning. Among its many determinations, the FCC stated that broadband providers do not enjoy First Amendment protections because they do not have a right to free speech.  “The rules we adopt today do not curtail broadband providers’ free speech rights,” the commission said on page 268 of its decision, noting that because they merely serve as a means for others to express themselves, broadband providers are not entitled to free speech rights themselves.

Read more at CNS News
(Hat tip: KimR) Read More......

Net Neutrality to Face Lawsuits, Congressional Investigations

Fight over Internet regulation not over - The Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday in favor of a proposal that will expand its influence over the Internet, but lawsuits from major Internet service providers (ISPs) as well as several congressional investigations mean the fight over Internet regulation is far from over. ✧ In a 3-2 vote on Thursday, the FCC passed a proposal, the details of which have not been disclosed, to regulate Internet providers under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, which was developed for telephone networks during the Great Depression.

Read more at Free Beacon Read More......

The FCC Wades Into the Newsroom [NEWSROOM MONITORS… REALLY?]

Why is the agency studying 'perceived station bias' and asking about coverage choices? - Op-Ed BY AJIT PAI, Federal Communications Commissioner, Feb. 10 - News organizations often disagree about what Americans need to know. MSNBC, for example, apparently believes that traffic in Fort Lee, N.J., is the crisis of our time. Fox News, on the other hand, chooses to cover the September 2012 attacks on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi more heavily than other networks. The American people, for their part, disagree about what they want to watch. ✧ But everyone should agree on this: The government has no place pressuring media organizations into covering certain stories. Read more at WSJ Online… Read More......

House Republican Introduces Bill to Block FCC's Internet Grab

Rep. Marsha Blackburn [R-TN] introduced legislation Wednesday to deny the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulatory oversight over the Internet, which the Tennessee Republican insisted was the “sole prerogative of Congress” to administer. Read more at BIG GOVERNMENT... Read More......

Arrogant FCC Takes Control Over Internet

iT&Telecom News, 12/28/2010 by Bruce Walker of Heartland.org - "By a 3-2 vote, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski’s latest network neutrality iteration came to pass [before Christmas break], reeking of bureaucratic arrogance. ∴ Arrogance not only toward the majority of the public who expressed their contentment with the Internet without government intrusion, but also toward a Congress that refused to relinquish any statutory authority whatsoever to the FCC, and toward industry stakeholders warning of the negative economic and employment impact of the maneuver. The prolonged uncertainty injected into an industry known for rapid advancements will most certainly stifle innovations and investment. ∴ Perhaps most damning, the FCC is showing arrogance toward the U.S. Appeals Court, which told the FCC to back off last April because only Congress has the authority to implement rules over the Internet. The court’s finding was unanimous." Read more at iT & Telecom News...

What others have to say...

The Internet has taken our basic Freedom of Assembly right and adapted itself beautifully to the 21st century – a sensational transition our Founding Fathers would have been proud of. To believers in freedom, the Internet is a Godsend – the modern-day equivalent of the printing press. --Lee Bellinger

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V2A: Big Government Strikes Back

VISION 2 AMERICA, 12/30/2010 - "The 111th Congress, the most unpopular Congress in the recorded history of the United States, ended last week with a flurry of legislative activity that set a record for a lame duck Congress. Some in the media are eager to make the case that last week’s events portend a new era of bipartisan accomplishment, led by the White House, that will extend into the 112th Congress. They are half right.

Last week’s events in Washington were a preview of lawmaking in 2011, but Congress was not where the real action was. While the media was distracted by the last breaths of a defeated leftist majority in Congress, it was the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that gave true picture of how the Obama Administration will advance their agenda in 2011."

Related: Morning Bell: Top Ten Reasons America Won’t Miss the 111th Congress Read More......

iT News: UN talks on Internet Regulation labelled "offensive"

iTnews (au), 12/20/2010 - US Congresswoman offers resolution: Hands off the internet! ∴ US politicians have responded to moves from within the United Nations to form an inter-Government panel to regulate the internet, putting forward a resolution demanding the UN maintain a "hands-off approach". ∴ Responding to an exclusive iTnews report on the United Nations discussion (which overnight became the most read story in iTnews' history), California Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack has put forward a resolution that the United Nations and other international governmental organisations take their hands off the Internet. ∴ Introducing House Resolution 1775 [see full text at link], Mack argued that "the Internet has progressed and thrived precisely because it has not been subjected to the suffocating effect of a governmental organization's heavy hand. ∴ "The attempt of the United Nations to overtake something that is so central to our economy-like the Internet-is offensive and completely out of line," she said. ∴ "We have a hard enough time keeping the Federal Communications Commission's hands off the Internet; imagine having to convince governments like Syria, Iran and Venezuela." Read more at iTnews... Read More......

WSJ: Court Tosses Out FCC Rules to Curb Indecent Speech

A federal appeals court threw out the FCC's rules on indecent speech Tuesday, in a big win for broadcasters that could lead to a new Supreme Court test of the government's power to control what is said on television and radio. Read more at Wall Street Journal... Read More......

Will the FCC control the Internet?

Video response from Heartland Institute: Why Obama is Wrong About Net Neutrality
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Net Neutrality now a left wing movement

REDSTATE.COM, 10/3/2009 by Neil Stevens - The Real Net Neutrality Astroturfers: The left is at it again. They know that in a straight-up battle of ideas, their socialist perversion of Net Neutrality could never win out. Nobody but the most blindly partisan supporters of Barack Obama wants a government takeover of the Internet, because everybody knows that when government takes something over, freedom in it tends to die. ∴ That is why Save The Internet is resorting to dishonest smear campaigns in an attempt to shout down and discredit their opponents. They want to win by driving all opposition off the field, turning this debate into the Internet equivalent of the streets of Berlin in Weimar Germany. They must not get away with it. ∴ Save the Internet is a diverse coalition of mostly radical socialist groups like SEIU, ACLU, PIRG, select AFSCME locals, PETA, Democrat Underground, MoveOn.org, AfterDowningStreet.org, and Common Cause, but also a number of corporations and ISPs both foreign and domestic, and even foreign interest groups. There are some mistaken right-wingers and libertarians in there like Glenn Reynolds, the Christian Coalition, and the Gun Owners of America. I would urge them to leave, because the movement has been hijacked, ladies and gentlemen. You are now being used to promote a radical left wing movement. Read more at Red State... Read More......