Gigi Sohn speaks out on bitter FCC confirmation brawl for first time

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For over a year, [Benton Senior Fellow and Public Advocate] Gigi Sohn stayed relatively silent as she faced a barrage of attacks over her nomination to the Federal Communications Commission, which had languished in the Senate since President Joe Biden tapped her in October 2021. But her plans began to shift, she said, after speaking with the White House and a top Senate Democrat in the days before she would eventually announce her withdrawal. “They basically said, ‘There's no path forward for you,’” Sohn said of her talks with Biden administration officials and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), whose panel was reviewing her nomination. “At that point, what was the point?” Sohn said in addition to having to put her “life on hold” during the process as senators sparred over her pick, she was frustrated by her inability to speak out against ongoing rebukes. “The one thing you don't do as a nominee is you don't defend yourself … you've got to keep your mouth shut,” she said. Sohn cited “unrelenting, dishonest and cruel attacks” seeded by cable and media industry lobbyists in her announcement to pull out. Sohn said the opposition took on a frightening new dimension in recent weeks after a pair of articles in Fox News and the Daily Mail highlighted her affiliation with a digital rights group that opposed a controversial anti-sex-trafficking law. Sohn, who would have been the first openly gay FCC commissioner, said the implication in the articles were “clearly tied to QAnon themes about LGBTQ+ people as groomers, as perverts, as sex traffickers.” And she said she felt it put her and her loved ones at risk. “That was the first time I felt like ‘Oh my god, this could really rile up some crazies to come to my house … and threaten me and my family,’” Sohn said. 


Gigi Sohn speaks out on bitter FCC confirmation brawl for first time