It’s pretty-much official now: Obama will appoint Julius Genachowski as chairman of the FCC. Juding by his past professions and views, he may be not be a Lessig but he is certainly someone to look forward to.
Genachowski’s served as General Counsel to Clinton’s FCC chairman Reed Hundt, then went on to run numerous online companies, including Expedia, Hotels.com and Beliefnet (no it’s not a Christian Right blog, its a website for any type of news relating to religion or lack thereof.) When I first read the AP headline of his announcement, I was terrified when I read “former internet executive”, thinking he was some executive of established ISP interests (read: cable or a telecom company). My fears were removed as soon as I realized it meant web-based companies. If he’s going to represent some type of corporate interests, I’d much rather it be the large websites’ than the ISPs’: at least they would support net neutrality. And sure enough, Genachowski drafted Obama’s tech platform to include strong Net Neutrality provisions, as well as policies to expand US broadband penetration (we’re like 18th in the world in terms of broadband availability, which simply sucks!) Hopefully this man will have the common-sense to not believe the Cable and Telecom industries’ promises of “300 gbps by year’s end” in exchange for loosening of regulations, because these were the same people that are trying to stab web-based companies in the back by abolishing net neutrality. Even so, we would get these same good platforms from, say, Larry Paige of Google, who’s business interests are also mutualistic with the general public in terms of supporting Net Neutrality. Nevertheless, Paige would be expected to have horrendous views on issues such as privacy and data protection against corporate negligence. The point is not that Google and Expedia.com have the same corporate interests, but rather that just because they side with consumers on net neutrality does not mean they always share interests with the American people.
Another reason to be skeptical: the guys’ on the board of Common Sense Media, a website that rates movies, TV, etvc. in terms of “family friendly” value. Thankfully, they’re not some crazy “traditional family values” fundemnetalist organization, like Focus on the Family, and their reviews on things like Milk (the film) actually commend the “family value” of the film because it denouces prejudice. Let’s not kid ourselve, though; this site isn’t out-there to encourage parents to let their kids experience stuff for themeselves. It’s a website whose audience is already commited to censoring their childrens’ viewing habbits. This is not a bad view for parents to have, but it the theme of “protecting the children” makes it seem likeGenachowski i s the type to favor blanket censorship of “adult” material on the internet. And with the FCC already drafting plans to launch free public internet access (thanks to the spectrum space being freed by the transition to digital cable) within the next 8 years, he will have an extremly strong roll in deciding just how free that network will be.
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