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  2. February 2017

February 2017

FCC: I Do Believe We’re on the Eve of Destruction.

[Commentary] On Thursday, February 23rd, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission held its first official meeting with the new FCC Chairman, Ajit Pai. And like a polluted stream filled with dead fish floating belly up, the meeting just added to the stench from the FCC we’ve seen in this ‘transition’. As I previously mentioned, Pai is a former Verizon attorney, while the head of the transition team, Jeffrey Eisenach, has been a consultant to Verizon, wearing multiple hats, for two decades. But I’ll let the FCC’s actions or in-actions speak for themselves.

  • Overarching Theme: Remove All Regulations & Consumer Protections
  • Block Privacy Rules
  • Erase the Accounting Rules
  • There Should be Audits of the Accounting to Expose the Billions in Cross-Subsidies.

Commissioner Clyburn vows to fight for net neutrality at rally

Mignon Clyburn, the lone Democratic commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission, joined with activists on Capitol Hill to commemorate the anniversary of the agency's landmark network neutrality rules and vowed to fight to defend them. “Now it is time for us to once again roll up our sleeves and fight for the protections embodied in the Open Internet Order, that are designed to ensure that the internet remains an open platform, that enables free speech, freedom of expression and the ability for innovation to flourish,” said Commissioner Clyburn, speaking alongside representatives from civil rights groups and advocates of net neutrality. “For me it can be summed up in this way: How do we ensure that one of most inclusive, enabling, empowering platforms of our time continues to be one where our applications, products, ideas and diverse points of view have the exact same chance of being seen and heard by everyone, regardless of our class, race, economic status or where we live?” Clyburn added.

Trump: New York Times has 'evil' intentions

President Donald Trump lashed out at The New York Times in an interview with Breitbart News, saying that he can handle rough treatment from the media but that the nation’s largest newspaper is out to sink him at any cost. “It’s intent. It’s also intent. If you read The New York Times, if you read The New York Times, it’s — the intent is so evil and so bad,” Trump told Breitbart’s Washington political editor, Matthew Boyle, in a sit-down interview in the Oval Office. “The stories are wrong in many cases, but it’s the overall intent.”

How Does Donald Trump Think His War on the Press Will End?

[Commentary] “I love the First Amendment,” President Trump told the CPAC crowd. “Nobody loves it better than me. Nobody.” “I mean, who uses it more than I do?” he added. He uses it all right, but to what end? Freedom of the press is not an institutional right, it’s a Constitutional one. It belongs to all American people—to you, and to me, and to Donald Trump. And no matter what the president says, no matter who he calls fake, the best journalists will be doing what they must. They’ll be reporting. Fearlessly, fairly, truthfully, and relentlessly.

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