Dorgan Pushes Back Against FCC Critics

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) Tuesday pushed back against groups claiming that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski's recent call to reclassify some aspects of broadband as a telecommunications service is a "government takeover of the Internet."

During a speech at a policy summit sponsored by Free Press, Sen Dorgan blasted a new coalition of groups led by Americans for Prosperity, which announced Tuesday it was launching a $1.4 million television advertising campaign aimed at blocking what it claims is the FCC's attempt to regulate the Internet. He noted that the federal government created the Internet and that the Internet flourished under nondiscrimination rules, which he said vanished under former FCC Chairman Michael Powell during the administration of George W. Bush. Genachowski's "determination to recreate nondiscrimination rules is not an attempt to take over the Internet," Sen Dorgan argued. The idea that it's a government takeover is "part of the big lie that so permeates our debate now," adding that similar false messages were put out about health care reform. He said that Genachowski is trying to undo "an unbelievable amount of damage done over the last eight or nine years by an FCC that said 'let's not regulate.' ...You can't do that when there's not competition." Sen Dorgan said that most Americans don't have real broadband competition because they only have access to one or two broadband providers.