The New York Times Mangles Obama's Net Neutrality Power Grab
Distressed for Decades |
On February 26, the Obama Administration’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) pretended to be Congress and rewrote law. To suddenly start regulating the Internet under the 1934 Telecommunications Act - under rules written to regulate the landline telephone.
You would think we could all assume Congress’ intent in 1934 wasn’t to apply the law they were then passing to the World Wide Web, right? I mean, we were still sixty years away from the birth of what we know as the Net.
But this little bit of Reality is lost on this Administration. And, too, on the media. Led, as usual, by the New York Times.
Title II of the Communications Act gives the F.C.C. much broader powers, and by simply invoking it, it would be bringing the full authority of the agency to bear on Internet providers.Emphasis ours - because the Times doesn’t want you to realize what it just wrote.
I will address the following bit of Constitution 101 to the media rather than Iran’s Grand Mullah (as if that will better assuage the media's President-Obama-defending delicate sensibilities).
The FCC is a part of the Executive Branch - but like just about all of the Executive Branch it is a creation and a creature of the Legislative Branch. It cannot do anything unless and until Congress first writes law that says “Yo, FCC - do this.”
Again - only the hardest core Left and the media (please pardon the redundancy) could just assume that Congress - in 1934 - intended their law to apply to the Internet. It is - on its face - utterly absurd.
But that is what the Times here is doing. Title II emanates from the aforementioned 1934 Act - and is meant for landline phones. The FCC can’t “simply invoke” it for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) - Congress has to invoke it for them.
Thus does the Times breezily brush past perhaps the largest power grab of an Administration rife with large power grabs.
The allegedly “independent” FCC originally proposed an-obnoxious-though-less-obtrusive power grab. On which the FCC had two public comment periods - which resulted in the “4 million comments” about which you have incessantly heard.
Because that’s when President Obama big-footed the process - and the FCC suddenly had the 1934-flashback-power-grab.
On which Obama-campaign-coin-bundling Chairman Wheeler - who extended a comment period on the old order - steadfastly refused to take any comments. He steadfastly refused to release it to allow We the People to even read it.
Wheeler steadfastly refused to wait for Congress to go first - as the Commission is Constitutionally required to do. He steadfastly refused to testify before Congress on it.
All of which is context the Times fails utterly to provide.
The Grey Lady goes on, and on, and.… 3,365 words in excerpts and their analysis - time and again attempting to provide cover for the Administration’s gi-normous power grab. Section after section presenting the Administration’s perspective - as THE perspective.
The Times then - at the very end - gives a paltry 629 words to the dissent of the FCC’s two Republican Commissioners. Most of said words are excerpts from them.
Fair? Balanced.? Equal time? [Not even close] - from the New York Times.
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Seton Motley is the President of Less Government and he contributes to ARRA News Service. Please feel free to follow him him on Twitter / Facebook.
Tags: Seton Motley, Less Government, New York Times, FCC, Net Netrality, Power Grab To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
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