After 16 months, three confirmation hearings, more than 1 million letters in support, and a dishonest multimillion-dollar smear campaign financed by unlimited corporate spending, Gigi Sohn, President Joe Biden’s nominee to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has withdrawn her name from consideration. Sohn, who helped draft landmark net neutrality rules in 2015, may have been the most qualified nominee in FCC history. The withdrawal of her nomination is a huge loss for American consumers and a massive win for Comcast, Verizon, AT&T, and the conservative detractors they funded to sink her nomination.
RELATED STORY: Senate Dems have a simple choice on FCC nominee: Do the right thing or help big telecom and the GOP
It is also bad news for American consumers, and not just because we lost the chance to appoint an incredible public advocate. For years, the FCC has been deadlocked, with two Democratic and two Republican commissioners. The split has stymied the commission’s ability to tackle critical issues like expanding broadband into underserved and rural communities and restoring net neutrality rules revoked under Trump. Meanwhile, wealthy phone, cable, and broadcast corporations continue to enjoy the sweetheart years they were gifted under Donald Trump and Ajit Pai.
A gridlocked FCC comes at a high cost to everyday Americans. We pay more for fixed-line broadband than peer nations thanks to telecom industry consolidation. Telecom companies—including Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile—have been repeatedly caught throttling consumers’ access to competitors’ services. And Big Telecom firms are among American consumers’ most hated companies.
Sign and send a petition to President Biden: We still need a functioning FCC. Fill the final commissioner's seat.
The Daily Kos community talks at length about how Citizens United opened the floodgates for unlimited political spending that has wildly upended our democracy. Sohn's failed confirmation is yet another example of how disgusting it all is, and how both major parties are influenced by it.
The Trump administration allowed Big Telecom to effectively control the FCC. Under Ajit Pai, the agency gutted consumer protections, rubber-stamped competition-killing mergers, and made it easier for billion-dollar corporations to run roughshod over smaller outlets and marginalized communities.
Wealthy phone, cable, and broadcast corporations like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T aim to continue operating with minimal oversight, believing they have the right to choose their own regulators. Not only do they want to avoid accountability for anti-consumer, predatory behavior, they want to choose who has access to services and who can be left behind.
That sense of entitlement spurred Comcast to spend millions of dollars deploying a dishonest, misogynistic smear campaign to vindictively target and malign Sohn. It's a demonstrably effective right-wing tactic that has blocked multiple highly qualified and competent women from holding critical posts in the Biden administration.
However, a vast coalition coalesced around Sohn's nomination, determined to break the FCC's partisan gridlock and restore meaningful federal oversight. We doggedly demonstrated strong support, keeping her nomination alive despite Comcast's ability to buy detractors. Daily Kos readers alone sent in 300,000 letters to the Senate.
The attacks grew even more personal: Homophobia and discredited allegations of racism joined the misogyny. Then America's most dangerous gang, the Fraternity of Police (FOP), got involved, spouting off a litany of debunked lies and political pressure that shook several Democratic senators up for reelection in 2024, effectively shutting down our path to victory. After months of character assassination and vitriol, Sohn understandably withdrew her name from consideration.
Just as it was a mistake to allow railroad barons and banks to dictate their own rules, it is a mistake to allow Big Telecom to keep the FCC in stalemate. A hamstrung FCC comes at a real cost to communities who need equal access and fair service.
For example, Democrats worked hard to craft rules preventing digital discrimination on broadband access in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The rules would ensure that companies like Comcast and Verizon can't discriminate based on the income level or predominant race or ethnicity of the people living in an area. If Big Telecom has its way, rural communities will continue to suffer from barely functional broadband operating at bare minimum speeds, hindering economic development and access to health care and education.
With the current stalemate, the FCC—which is charged with implementing the IIJA—cannot ensure strong rules or strong enforcement. And it doesn't stop at closing the digital divide or ending digital discrimination. We need a functional FCC to reinstate net neutrality protections, protect our privacy, and ensure taxpayer money is being used effectively.
Sohn warned that "regulated entities should not choose their regulator."
"The 2-2 F.C.C. will remain sidelined at the most consequential opportunity for broadband in our lifetimes." She continued, “This means that your broadband will be more expensive for lack of competition, minority and underrepresented voices will be marginalized, and your private information will continue to be used and sold at the whim of your broadband provider. It means that the F.C.C will not have a majority to adopt strong rules which ensure that everyone has nondiscriminatory access to broadband. … And it means that many rural Americans will continue the long wait for broadband because the F.C.C can't fix its Universal Service programs.”
In the time since since Biden first nominated Gigi Sohn to fill the fifth and final commissioner’s spot at the FCC, we could have restored net neutrality rules; ensured access to affordable broadband; protected privacy, free expression, and civil rights; curbed phone, cable, and internet junk fees; and more. Instead, the agency has stayed in a 2-2 partisan stalemate on a range of issues, stymying progress. Meanwhile, corporations like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T continue to operate with far less oversight than needed.
I have a lot to say about the way a handful of Senate Democrats and every single Republican senator failed Americans by allowing the worst people in politics to dictate the outcome of this nomination process. If you and I are ever hanging out in a cabin in the woods, I'll tell all. For now, let's just say that we deserve better from our party.
We still have a seat to fill, and we need a nominee worthy of the post. Based on what we witnessed during Sohn's nomination process, it's clear that we will have our work cut out for us if we're going to ensure we don't simply get a corporate shill.
As long as this seat remains vacant, wealthy corporations will continue taking advantage of consumers and underserved communities will continue to be left behind. We need a progressive public advocate on the FCC and we needed them 16 months ago.
Sign and send a petition to President Biden: We still need a functioning FCC. Fill the final commissioner's seat.
Today, Kerry is joined by Drew Linzer, the director and co-founder of the well-regarded polling company, CIVIQs. Drew and Kerry talk about a recent CIVIQs poll that asked Americans from all walks of life about trans issues, among other things. Drew talks about the methodology and how the results show that conservatives tend to have more liberal views when questions are framed in terms of fundamental rights.
