Preston Padden: Broadband Providers Complicit in Smear Campaign Against FCC Nominee Gigi Sohn

Citing a smear campaign to continue to prevent Gigi Sohn [Senior Fellow and Public Advocate at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society] from being seated as the fifth Federal Communications Commissioner, former Fox and ABC/Disney executive Preston Padden has written the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee to call out those tactics and advocate for Sohn, with whom he is not aligned politically. Padden also said he had been in contact with Fox’s Rupert Murdoch, an opponent of the Democratic nominee. He said he was able to assuage Murdoch’s “misgivings” about Sohn’s nomination by pointing out that she was helpful in Padden’s efforts as a top Fox exec to secure the FCC waivers needed to start the Fox network and “fend off” fierce lobbying from ABC, CBS, and NBC in the process. Padden called Sohn a “superbly qualified” nominee who should get confirmed ASAP. He also asked that the letter be read into the record of a potential third nomination hearing on Sohn, who was nominated by President Joe Biden to fill the vacant third Democratic seat more than two years ago. Padden said he was afraid Sohn was ”in danger of falling victim to the worst, and most cynical and baseless smear campaign ever waged against a nominee to serve on the FCC."