Tom Wheeler Still Wants To 'Split The Baby'; Forgetting That The Point Of That Story Was Not To Actually Split The Baby
from the slamming-on-the-breaks dept
The Washington Post put up an article last night claiming that FCC boss Tom Wheeler is telling tech companies that he isn't going to follow President Obama's net neutrality plan, following the President's surprise announcement on Monday of his support for real net neutrality rules under Title II. We've heard from a few people who were at that meeting who claim that the Washington Post article isn't entirely accurate. It is true that Wheeler is still very interested in a potential hybrid plan that almost no one likes, but that much of Wheeler's statements at the meeting were actually more focused on delaying an official decision by the FCC, which many had expected to come in a December FCC meeting. Wheeler, it appears, wants more time to study the different options. Another FCC commissioner, Jessica Rosenworcel (who seems more likely to support a plan including Title II reclassification), has apparently been pushing for the FCC to stick to the existing schedule and to make a decision "without delay."Still, it does appear that Wheeler wants more time to potentially explore the possibility of the hybrid option, or whether or not to really support the President's Title II plan. According to the Washington Post, he made this rather unfortunate analogy:
“What you want is what everyone wants: an open Internet that doesn’t affect your business,” a visibly frustrated Wheeler said at the meeting, according to four people who attended. “What I’ve got to figure out is how to split the baby.”Except, first of all, no, he doesn't need to "split the baby." The whole point of the split the baby story is not about compromising and going down the middle, but about how such a plan for a compromise is actually a decoy to get parties to reveal their true positions, leading to the final result, which does not involve such a compromise. Perhaps Wheeler thinks he's playing the long game here, and his apparent attraction to the hybrid plan is something of a similar decoy, but it's not at all clear right now.
Meanwhile, the White House is making lots of noise about how the President is really serious in supporting Title II and "itching for a fight" if Congress tries to challenge such net neutrality rules:
Ultimately, the White House decided that telecom companies probably would challenge any strong FCC rules in court anyway, so why not fully support calls by the tech lobby for far-reaching rules protecting an open Internet?If true, that's a good sign, but unfortunately, we've grown accustomed to promises to take on issues like this, not followed up by any actual actions. But hopefully the message is being made clearly to Wheeler at this point that there is political backing if he decides to take the most reasonable step and support reclassification.
The aides saw a political upside to a strong statement. A key contingent of the president’s base — young, tech-savvy progressives — would be energized by the action, and a strong statement on net neutrality could also help his relationship with congressional Democrats, according to government and industry officials.
Obama also saw a more immediate opportunity to retake the political high ground from Republicans, according to a Democratic congressional aide. Should GOP lawmakers vote to overturn any protections enacted by the FCC, a presidential veto would put Obama on the side of millions of consumers who have called on the FCC to adopt strong regulations.
“I see him almost salivating over a congressional fight, or a fight with the carriers, over this issue,” said the aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk on the record. “This is a populist issue he thinks he can win on.”
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Filed Under: broadband, fcc, hybrid, net neutrality, open internet, split the baby, title ii, tom wheeler
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Obama's final election is over...
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Re: Obama's final election is over...
Since when?
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Private Industry Job Offers
Probably delaying any decision until a high enough paying job offer comes along for him after his FCC "service" is finished...
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Right on schedule.
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Re: Right on schedule.
If Obama came out in favor of oxygen, the IQ of nation would rise a few points.
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The government will fix it!!!!!11!
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Re: The government will fix it!!!!!11!
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Re: Re: The government will fix it!!!!!11!
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Re: Re: Re: The government will fix it!!!!!11!
Laws intended to prevent communities from creating their own community broadband services. Every time a community tries to start their own broadband services big ISP's swoop in and do everything they can to stop it.
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140308/06040526491/if-you-want-to-fix-us-broadband-competitio n-start-killing-state-level-protectionist-laws-written-duopolists.shtml
http://arstechnica.com/tech-p olicy/2014/02/isp-lobby-has-already-won-limits-on-public-broadband-in-20-states/
https://www.techdirt .com/articles/20090422/2236584615.shtml
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140430/11184827076/some-g ood-news-fccs-wheeler-claims-fcc-will-preempt-state-laws-blocking-broadband-competition.shtml
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Re: Re: Re: Re: The government will fix it!!!!!11!
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100211/1009598132.shtml
It's clear that broadband players have a lot of power to manipulate laws and they do everything in their power to manipulate communities and laws to limit competition and stifle broadband offerings.
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Re: The government will fix it!!!!!11!
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Re: The government will fix it!!!!!11!
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Re: The government will fix it!!!!!11!
The ISP's, due to their near-monopoly positions, are already screwing over the public left and right, with no chance of changing, because as things stand now, they don't need to. What are people supposed to do if they oppose what their ISP is doing, go to another, non-existent ISP? Or another major ISP, who, due to unofficial 'agreements' will provide the same crap level of service for the same ridiculous price?
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Re: The government will fix it!!!!!11!
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Re: The government will fix it!!!!!11!
Did you miss the part about the FCC being run by the same corporations it's pretending to regulate? There's very little "government" in this.
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Double reverse psychology?
I suspect he is merely pretending to be intelligent in saying this because people will think he is trying to use reverse psychology, but in reality he is a dumb as he sounds.
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appreciation
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Re: appreciation
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Screw it up...
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Re: Screw it up...
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Re: Re: Screw it up...
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Re: Re: Re: Screw it up...
http://archive.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/04/70619
https://www.techdirt.com/article s/20130606/23144723350/why-yes-course-nsa-spying-involves-more-companies-than-already-listed.shtml
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Re: Re: Re: Screw it up...
The government is rooting around in your stuff right now anyway. They can't really get any more intrusive on that point. So what you're really saying here is that you'd be ripped off by the telecoms and spied on by the government instead of just spied on by the government.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Screw it up...
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Screw it up...
I'll assume this is hyperbole. Of course, we had government and businesses long before the corporation concept was invented. Corporations are a fairly recent development in human history. The concept itself is certainly not all bad as it does create situations which are dramatic improvements over what existed before them.
Unfortunately, as in all things, too much of a good thing can be caustic and even toxic. They should be machines which aggregate investment and produce profit and jobs and pay taxes. They should not be considered persons any more than any other machine should, Commander Data not withstanding.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Screw it up...
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So confusing.
Thinking out loud here... but is the net really "neutral" now? We have throttling, shaping, seizing domains, and up/down grading search results based on the whim's of the AA's and whole host of other net trickery going on. ON top of that, the government is already regulating/shaping/controlling the internet using a whole host of tools and secret courts.... they could care less about "rules".. lol... to them the internet is a giant surveillance machine.
I guess what I'm thinking is; no one is playing by the current rules.... what makes anyone think they would follow new ones?
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Re: So confusing.
By its very nature, Big Government is too big to expect it to automatically behave in a consistent fashion. A strong leader can push it to be more consistent, but Mr. Obama has shown little interest in being that leader. Until he does, I'd rather see one regulator doing its pro-consumer job than see all the problems festering.
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Re: Re: So confusing.
But can we trust him to do that? I guess what I'm saying is that all these people fighting over control, are all doing so with their own agenda in mind. You give some bureaucrat a Pro-Consumer job, how long until it becomes Pro-Government? The lobbyists get involved, new regulation is passed, and were right back in the same mess.
The Government has allowed the ISP's somewhat of a monopoly. They can't fix that by regulating them, they tried that once with the phone company, it didn't work then either. The only way to fix this is to remove the monopoly. If there were true competition, there would be no need of protecting the consumer from the ISP's. I think getting the Gov involved in regulating the net is just going to make things worse.
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Re: Re: Re: So confusing.
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Re: So confusing.
But, at worst, they don't screw things up any more than the private companies do.
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Splitting the baby
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Re: Splitting the baby
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Problem with splitting the baby
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Re: Problem with splitting the baby
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Re: Re: Problem with splitting the baby
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Why the delay?
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Re: Why the delay?
So if you were head of the FCC, and really don't want to bother with those pesky 'net neutrality' rules that people are calling for, and you know that come next year the republicans are going to have the majority in both Houses, well, just stall until they take office, and then claim that you don't have the political clout to get any real net neutrality rules in place.
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Re: Re: Why the delay?
Also from the Washington Post story:
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Re: Re: Re: Why the delay?
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Why the delay?
When Mr Obama nominated Mr Wheeler as head of the FCC, and he was confirmed by the Senate, the Senators —of both parties— all knew what was happening.
“Tom Wheeler, Former Lobbyist and Obama Fundraiser, Tapped to Lead FCC”, by Sam Gustin, Time, May 2013
The public knew, too, if they cared to know. It wasn't some kind of big secret.
Anyhow, we've had an election since that nomination and confirmation, and do you know what? Most of the senators from a year ago —of both parties— will still be sitting in the Senate at the start of the next session.
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Re: Re: Re: Why the delay?
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When you wish upon a star, ...
Why would he care about that, or want it? He's the telco's guy. He'll very likely be going back to a cushy job with one of his former employers once his term is up at the FCC, assuming he can implement whatever it is that they want.
The fix was in when Obama appointed him. Expecting anything different is delusional. The best we can expect is to hope we can stop them from getting everything they want.
Democracy in action.
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Re: When you wish upon a star, ...
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Re: Re: When you wish upon a star, ...
Yeah, I've got to stop doing that. I often forget how polarized US politics are. I should have said, "The fix was in when he was appointed." I intended no slur at Obama specifically. I'm well aware both Demopublicans and Republicrats pull this !@#$. I'd no intention to tar the current President any more than the next or former ones.
For the record, I think Obama is much prettier than Hillary, Cruze, or Romney. I just wish he was President in more than just the name, but that's hardly his fault, poor guy.
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Making sense of it all
Does the story make sense now?
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Re: Making sense of it all
Yup. Elections are won based on the amount of cash they can raise. The donor base is fewer than 1,000 for 90% of campaign contributions and that's who runs the country. The "us" vs "them" thing is to keep the masses amused.
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Splitting the Baby
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Re: Splitting the Baby
Yeah, I would've gone with somebody from the EFF instead. Maybe more people need to pony up to build up the EFF slush fund, er PAC. Hey, kickstarter ...
Get on it. You know you want to. :-)
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Re: Re: Splitting the Baby
Personally, I tend to think the minimum qualification for an FCC commissioner is a bachelor's in electrical engineering (or equivalent experience).
Well, if wishes were horses, then beggars might rein them in... Anyhow, unfortunately, telecom regulation is mind-numbing. So you probably do need a JD on top of that EE degree to be really competent at the job.
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P.R. + B.S. = U.S.G.
Another authorized, unauthorized "leak" from another undisclosed person "who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk on the record."
Bend over America, here comes another vaseline enema.
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