Ex-Wheeler Aide Sohn Slams FCC Chairman Pai For Lifeline Moves

Gigi Sohn, former top counselor to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, took aim at new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's reversal of a handful of Lifeline subsidy authorizations.

Chairman Pai took to the Internet himself to defend the move after critics said he was undercutting the program for subsidizing essential communications services, in part blaming news stories he said had gotten the story wrong. But Sohn said the criticism was justified. In a post labeled "Defending the Indefensible," on the Benton Foundation Web site, Sohn said that the bottom lines was that Pai and his fellow Republican Commissioner Michael O'Rielly "fundamentally disagree with the structure and goals of the Lifeline program and will seek to undermine it in word and deed." Sohn argues there were no procedural flaws that should have resulted in withdrawing the authorizations approved by the FCC under Wheeler.