Don't Let the Smear Machine Stop the Gears of a Fully Functional FCC

The New Yorker recently published a piece about the work of the American Accountability Foundation (A.A.F.) — a dark-money group aiming to sabotage the Biden administration’s agenda by torpedoing the confirmation of nominees to fill critical roles across the government. The group brags about having stopped the confirmation of nominees like Saule Omarova, Biden’s pick to be comptroller of the currency, and Sarah Bloom Raskin, who the president nominated to serve as the vice-chair for supervision of the Federal Reserve Board. Possibly their most famous target was now-Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Also on their list? Gigi Sohn, Biden’s nominee for the fifth and tie-breaking seat at the Federal Communications Commission. As of this writing, she’s featured on the homepage of A.A.F.’s website targeting Biden nominees. The ones who benefit the most from delaying Sohn's confirmation are white-owned and -controlled internet service providers and broadcasters. This is preventing the FCC from adopting policies that would ensure that broadband access is affordable, accessible and reliable for all. It’s allowing runaway media consolidation to continue. And this is especially harming those who suffer the most when the government doesn’t work: low-income families, Black and Brown people and people in rural areas.