Gigi Sohn: Dark Money Fueled FCC Nomination Failure

Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] has weighed in on the political forces that prevented her from taking a seat on the Federal Communications Commission after her nomination by President Joe Biden and her decades of experience in communications, primarily as a public advocate and briefly as a top FCC adviser. Those forces included dark money groups, she said, with an assist from some inaccurate reporting in the media that she was unable to correct. As a general rule, given that elections have consequences, presidents have gotten their picks for FCC commissioners approved, even when, also as a general rule, they would not be the choice of the opposing party. Sohn said her treatment in the media was a "humongous" piece of her nomination's failure, a process she said where her hands were tied behind her back while she had the stuffing knocked out of her by dark money and "agenda-setting" groups that didn't care what the impact would be on her or her family -- which included being warned to keep her doors locked and "alert the neighbors." Other takeaways from Sohn's conversation, which included advice to activists on strategies:

• Sohn urged public advocacy groups to reengage in the push to restore network neutrality rules and put in a plug for reimposing broadcast ownership limits, both issues she would clearly have liked to work on with a Democratic majority had her nomination been approved.
• Don't think of the FCC as the only place to get things done, Sohn said, pointing to a number of activist state attorneys general. Sohn said it was much harder to go "state by state by state," but if they can interest California, New York and Illinois, they could "make some progress."
• She signaled she did not think that Anna Gomez, who the White House nominated for the third Democratic seat after Sohn bowed out, would have as much pushback, though she did say there was some "friction" already happening around her nomination from people who don't want a "complete" FCC or a functioning government. She said that key to Gomez's success would be to get the process moving, citing the delays that helped sink Sohn's own nomination.