Government’s Internet Monopoly

[Commentary] The Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission high-fived each other, teaming up to reject the $45 billion merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable. There was no explanation of what law this consolidation in the declining cable industry would have violated, but Obama administration officials don’t let such details stand in their way.

If protecting competition or the open Internet had anything to do with the Federal Communications Commission’s new powers, this merger should have sailed through. Indeed, Comcast’s 100 lobbyists grew more confident about the merger once the FCC declared the Internet a public utility subject to “just and reasonable” practices determined by bureaucrats. That should mean consumers are at less risk from a larger broadband provider. So why did the administration block the merger? It might have concluded it will lose the seven lawsuits filed so far against Obamanet. Far from encouraging broadband competition, Obamanet entrenches the broadband status quo. By submitting the Internet to Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, the FCC subjects Internet access to rules written to protect the Ma Bell monopoly, not to encourage competition.