Time to treat net neutrality as more than a hashtag

[Commentary] Believe it or not, Jimmy Fallon’s April 24 monologue on NBC’s The Tonight Show mentioned the Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality proposal for the Internet was a rare guest appearance by the topic on broadcast and cable television.

A recent study from Pew Research Center revealed that television news programs covered net neutrality just 25 times between January 1 and May 12, which comes to less than 1% of all programs reviewed. And while the top 23 newspapers provided slightly more coverage than television, six of them carried nearly 70% of the 203 newspaper stories.

The consensus on Twitter doesn’t reflect reality. Many have grave concerns about the FCC overstepping when trying to enforce net neutrality. Classifying the Internet as Title II could end innovation in the Internet ecosystem, as it has done in the telecommunications sphere. And some point out that net neutrality, supported by so many large companies, is a pretty fine example of crony capitalism.

It’s possible that Washington is once again taking itself too seriously and making an inside-the-beltway mountain out of something the watchers of Jimmy Fallon consider a molehill. But there’s a more troubling possibility: that the story of how a critical decision affecting the way Americans access and pay for the Internet is being ignored by the media and left to 140-character explanations from self-appointed experts on #netneutrality. This issue is serious. It’s time to treat it as more than a hashtag.