first so folks
column orton the f_c_c_ is all
could be
to the idea of
more americans getting access to
uh... more technology eh... economic development but also democracy folks
side net neutrality eight crucial component of our democracy in this day
and age
um... away now iam not getting uh... soon
for uh...
daring to use the concept of podcasting
which is not yet to happen i'm also very concerned
but the ability
to to bring you alternative media in the future uh... so it is uh... very
important who
will be sitting on the f_c_c_ and who will be chairing that um... that
committee and uh... with us today to talk about
president bombers and nominee instant car is the senior
rector a strategy for a free press
at uh... free press dot org really concentrated on it and ten welcome back
to the show
like an aerial
i'm doing pretty good uh...
so tom wheeler
he authored a book in two thousand eight mister lincoln's thi mails how abraham
lincoln use the telegraph
to win the civil
you know i a m
dead man some level i can make an argument that that's that's exactly the
type of guy we want on another level i might not but maybe that's not relevant
what do we know about tom wheeler
well we know a lot about from wheeler and and and then we we don't know a lot
of that time we learned i think that we do you know
should be cut her concern among the public interest community you know
people are like uh... c_-one
uh... universal access to an open internet where free speech is not
blocking where
where and everybody has the ability to connect to this network and and and and
the reason i think that it's because the things that we do know about come will
is that
is that he served as president of the national cable in tel aviv association
which is the top
lobbying group for the cable industry in addition
to being c_e_o_ of these
cellular telecommunications and internet association which is the
the top lobbying group for the wireless industry so he comes to us
with their someone who has beaten knowledge about telecommunications media
policy
however his experience undoubtedly lobbyist war
by these industries now as it's game time
amazed also proven himself to be as strong an ardent supporter of president
obama he he raised uh...
seven hundred thousand dollars over the last two two elections uh... in support
of obama and um...
if the compound ler
uh... so uh... he's yen obama himself has as in the past taken strong
positions in
bigger net neutrality in favor of
favor of a more diverse media
system also week we don't is that we don't know where this we'll erskine
apology enough
followed
you know obama inspiration around issues like net neutrality or is he going to
declare
his loyalty to the phone and cable companies and from the lobbied for in
the past
and to be fair um... you would
the cellular to telecommute asians in internet association chief
um...
from ninety two to two thousand four and was involved in cable television
uh... to nineteen eighty four in the so
you know in many respects cable television obviously very different
industry that it was in nineteen eighty four
uncoupling right and hand ended not it is a different industry than the one we
know today
enough so
that's to be fair indiana with that said though i mean i
i get nervous when i read in the times
this sentence but mister wheeler at times has voiced a program to a tory
sentiments
is that really with the best that we could say about this guy is that
on sometimes it's not the validity of a regulatory structure was valid and the
anyway
this is uh...
while let's all right let's step back so we don't know really where this guy's
gonna fall except for a key eddie appears to be rather loyal to president
obama
and of president obama has expressed a strong a support of uh... of of sort of
net neutrality and and the questions of net neutrality are really sort of
uh... convoluted because you have
such
big industry players on both sides of that argument right i mean this is this
is basically ma for a verses godzilla what we want may not be relevant in this
but one you know
uh... dot so maybe our champion or ma for a you tell me
yeah i mean it's you know we don't really look at this is the battle
between industry this is really about central question of control
and then the question is who will control
the internet of the future will it be
the hundreds of millions of people who use it every day
in every way
or will it be will it be a small number of phone and cable companies
who in the united states dominate access
that is the argument and it's not a question about whether we regulate the
internet
or whether we not regulate the internet the internet at the most communication
media
have been regulated from the beginning the question is not
whether to regulate it's which reagan which rules
all right to protect free speech
an access
for internet users
and right now we have this battle around the issue of net neutrality is
essentially that same issue
about whether or not the f_c_c_ has the authority to protect consumers
horizon
is taking up to the f_e_c_ deep court right now there's a court here is that
the court case it will be heard later this year arrive in is claiming this is
where gets a little over welly and
riding is claiming that it has leaf
amendment right
block
center internet users
that as a corporate status in the first amendment protects
phone companies in their in their efforts
just center internet users now my understanding
of the first amendment in our free speech rights is that that they should
be designed to protect
the voices of normal internet users like you and me
and not the ability of internet service providers to block
internet access center voices that they don't like
so if the deficit this nafta debate into which
tom wheeler is stepping
and at the question of the f_e_c_'s woul
whether it's working to benefit the industry
what he's done in the pastor where there will park to benefit
customers like you and me who want uh...
one fast affordable internet want universal access want to be able to
express ourselves
via the internet without the blocked ur without being overcharged
uh... without being intimidated in any way might so
images that uh... touching on this on this case now
uh... this
is is
rise and is right you have this opportunity to commit to uh... to make
this argument because of the way the f_c_c_
uh... change the classification
love internet providers during the bush administration is this still are we
still caught up in this uh... whatever is a classification wonder
classification to argument
yes we are ok and what happened in the bush administration month at the f_t_c_
uh... reclassified
this is the it
in their different classifications of already under the telecommunications act
which was passed in nineteen ninety six and during the bush administration
the bush f_t_c_ reclassified the f_e_c_'s forty
and they moved it from a title
to classification to taiwan part of the haitian in that
it much more limited authority
to protect consumers on the internet title to title to basically says
this is a telecommunications service like phone it's a it's a it's a uh...
uh... it's the acted like a desperately-needed utility that is not a
luxury and therefore we must make sure that anybody has access uh... to certain
about their minimum two terms of phone service
yet then importantly you know with a couple of the telephone service
they pick up the phone and you want to call
uh... domino's to order a pizza
the phone companies not gonna say
they wouldn't you rather call pizza hut
we're gonna redirect your call
and that's because under the title to a tortilla something that's called common
carriage
the the service where they can inherit the telephone company here internet
service
that just purely the infrastructure there the infrastructure that connects
you
to wherever it is if you want to go
they don't have any failed with the content that travels across that line
so if you pick up the phone are a few tried to go to google
the dealers are akin and here i a beautiful one year at the meeting
email under title to the f_e_c_ has the authorities that you cannot do that
uh... in and there was a subsequent decision
in two thousand five or that the cream court said it's going to bring court
that yet
the f_t_c_ has the authority to determine whether it had title on a
title to the thirty year over the internet
so if uh... in this current battle than in the court adherent to have matured if
if the the
the federal appeals court says
well you know the current uh... authority of the f_e_c_ is wrong he can
do this under title one
we we need a strong leader we need a strong f_c_c_ chaired a stable that's
fine their neutrality is too important to to let the uh... let the uh... i
think that side
we're gonna change our forty two title to use so that we can make sure that we
all have the freedom to go wherever it is that we want
every time that we we log onto the units