Government Intrusion into the Internet via FCC

By Douglas V. Gibbs

The Internet seems to be the last true bastion of free speech. It is the Wild Wild West, so to speak, of information transfer. Political and Religious speech dominates the blogs and news on the Net, and there are some at the top of the political pyramid that would like to see such an ability to say as one pleases (which includes criticism of the cockroaches of Washington) to be silenced.

Democrats that support the Obama Administration's desire to take control of the Internet have found that the unpopularity of such an attack on free speech rights is not popular in Congress, or among the American People. Rather than abandon their destructive agenda, however, they have turned to a regulatory agency to do their bidding.

The FCC regulatory proposals that would have essentially ended the Internet's freedom from governmental intrusion was smacked down when the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against government meddling into the Internet. Not to be defeated, the leftist desire to take control has given birth to another deceptive tactic: reclassification.

Obama, and FCC chairman Julius Genachowski, have decided to reclassify the Internet as an old-fashioned telephone system, which would do an end-around the court decision, and enable the government to regulate the free-market Internet at will.

If the FCC reclassifies the Internet as a telephone system, pervasive regulatory control would be inevitable. The decision would be devastating to the Internet, which under free-market conditions has thrived, flourishing into a remarkable engine of economic growth, innovation, competition, and free expression. As with the old expression, "don't fix what ain't broke," to tamper with success by allowing the government to intrude into the Internet would not only damage the growth of the industry, but shows that the Democrats, and the FCC, are more interested in satisfying a left-wing political agenda than continuing sound policy.

Robert McChesney, founder of the left-wing group Free Press, considers the Internet to be a public utility, rather than a private property, explaining, "At the moment, the battle over network neutrality is not to completely eliminate the telephone and cable companies. We are not at that point yet (emphasis added). But the ultimate goal is to get rid of the media capitalists in the phone and cable companies and to divest them from control."

In other words, give the government control over all means of communication.

Surprisingly, even if the FCC gets its way, the leftists don't believe it is enough. People like McChesney desire to see all information transfer, be it through television, radio, telephone, or the Internet, under strict federal guidelines so that opinions contrary to their own can be silenced, and the liberal agenda can be forwarded without anymore obstacles.

To allow the FCC to do this, however, not only wrestles the rights of the people away from them without even a vote, but allows yet another entity (like the judiciary) that is not constitutionally given the authority, to make law. Giving unelected entities the right to make and break laws, without the voice of the people having any involvement in the process, is not only against the original intent of the Founding Fathers, but is very dangerous to the survival of liberty.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

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