FCC's Wheeler and the 'Common Good' Standard

Appearing on the Charlie Rose show, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler defended the FCC's new network neutrality rules and appeared to come up with his own variation of the public interest standard -- "the common good" standard -- to back it up. He also gave a hint of how the FCC would treat its new broadband privacy oversight under those new Open Internet rules, which redefine Internet access as a common carrier.

As a former lobbyist, Chairman Wheeler spoke to being lobbied by the Google's and AT&T's of the world and recognizing that each side is going to say that without their asks, it will be the end of Western civilization. The regulator's job, he said, is to recognize that and try to find a solution that has the "common good" in it, suggesting that was the public interest, but that that term was vague. Rose said the common good was also about stimulating innovation, which ISPs have said the rules would not do. Wheeler said the new rules were all about stimulating "permissionless innovation."