Don't Mistake Her Kindness For Weakness

A Q&A with Federal Communications Commission member Mignon Clyburn.

She says she hopes to be remembered for putting consumers first and for her willingness to listen. But she will also certainly be remembered as the FCC's first African-American woman, a distinction she calls bittersweet given that it did not come until 2009. Commissioner Clyburn is anything but neutral on network neutrality, and says that while the FCC has to look at indecency issues on a case-by-case basis, parents can change the channel if they don't like what they see. As to broadcasting's future in an increasingly broadband-centric world, she says she doesn't believe the FCC should be favoring one technology over another. In a long interview, Eggerton asks about Commissioner Clyburn's background in newspaper and TV, newspaper-broadcast crossownership, spectrum, indecency regulation, minority ownership, the National Broadband Plan, and much more.