Conservatives want humble FCC chief

A coalition of conservative groups is urging President Barack Obama to pick a new Federal Communications Commission chairman who will take a light touch with new regulations.

"We need regulators who can resist the frequent urge to 'do something' about problems that are rapidly mooted by technological change anyway. Often, government’s best response is to do nothing," the conservative groups wrote in the letter to President Obama and Senate leaders. The letter, which was signed by TechFreedom, Heritage Action, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Americans for Tax Reform and others, counters the pleas from liberal groups for an aggressive regulator to lead the FCC. The conservatives argued that regulators should intervene only to protect consumers from real harms and with "economically sound rules that are flexible enough (and occasionally even encourage) technological progress."