{"id":1051711,"date":"2021-11-24T11:14:25","date_gmt":"2021-11-24T16:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1051711"},"modified":"2021-11-24T11:14:27","modified_gmt":"2021-11-24T16:14:27","slug":"experts-worry-biden-fcc-pick-will-use-post-to-attack-conservatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/experts-worry-biden-fcc-pick-will-use-post-to-attack-conservatives\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts Worry Biden FCC Pick Will Use Post To Attack Conservatives"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fexperts-worry-biden-fcc-pick-will-use-post-to-attack-conservatives%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1051711&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div readability=\"28.293436293436\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"article-category\"><a class href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/\">Biden Administration<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"article-excerpt\">Gigi Sohn&#8217;s political activism could influence her regulatory approach<\/p>\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail-container relative lg:mr-24 w-full my-4 mb-8\">\n\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"736\" height=\"491\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-1135393553-736x491-1.jpg\" class=\"w-full lazyload blur-up wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 736px) 100vw, 736px\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-1135393553-scaled-e1637171356583.jpg 736w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-1135393553-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-1135393553-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-1135393553-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-1135393553-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-1135393553-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/GettyImages-1135393553-1400x933.jpg 1400w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" \/><figcaption class=\"absolute text-white p-4 w-full text-right text-xs bottom-0 bg-black opacity-75\">\n\t\t\t\tGigi Sohn (Photo by Chip Somodevilla \/ Getty Images)\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\t\t\t<span class=\"text-gray text-xs md:text-lg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/author\/santi-ruiz\/\" title=\"Posts by Santi Ruiz\" class=\"author url fn text-red-700\" rel=\"author\">Santi Ruiz<\/a> \u2022 November 24, 2021 11:10 am<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<div readability=\"96.848137535817\">\n<p>Telecommunications experts worry that President Joe Biden&#8217;s decision to put a career political activist on the Federal Communications Commission could transform the agency into a bludgeon for the administration to attack conservatives.<\/p>\n<p>Gigi Sohn has called for expanding the FCC&#8217;s authority to <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/gigibsohn\/status\/1321456221740847106?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">investigate<\/a> and regulate conservative networks. She has suggested that one of the leading conservative broadcasting companies should not have a broadcast license and&nbsp;founded&nbsp;a nonprofit that is actively <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicknowledge.org\/blog\/why-cable-and-satellite-providers-should-drop-one-america-news-network\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lobbying<\/a> cable providers to drop the right-wing One America News Network (OANN).<\/p>\n<p>Sohn could soon have the power to act on these radical positions, which some say is cause for concern.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s reason for concern she&#8217;d take punitive action against conservative voices,&#8221; one telecommunications expert told the <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Katie McAuliffe, the executive director of the pro-market nonprofit Digital Liberty, said Sohn has one major outlet to hamstring conservative media: She could &#8220;use the broadcast licensing regime to challenge someone&#8217;s use of the airwaves.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Television networks need to obtain an FCC license to broadcast on the air. The agency has the authority to revoke licenses it has already issued.&nbsp;If confirmed, Sohn will be one of five commissioners who rule on broadcast licensure.<\/p>\n<p>Sohn has throughout her career indicated where she falls on this issue. After right-leaning network Sinclair in 2018 called off a merger with Tribune Broadcasting, Sohn <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/a-media-censor-for-the-fcc-gigi-sohn-joe-biden-nominee-11636408804\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">questioned<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/gigibsohn\/status\/1027601875267465217?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">whether<\/a> &#8220;Sinclair is qualified to be a broadcast licensee at all.&#8221; She has also called for congressional investigations into Fox News for broadcasting &#8220;few if any opposing viewpoints.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Licensure is not the only area in which Sohn has called for more aggressive FCC intervention. She last year&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/gigibsohn\/status\/1265809503989174273?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">endorsed<\/a> the activist group Free Press after the group&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.freepress.net\/news\/press-releases\/free-press-calls-fcc-investigate-widespread-broadcast-disinformation-about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">petitioned<\/a> the FCC to make greater use of the &#8220;broadcast hoax&#8221; rule, which allows the agency to intervene when broadcasts cause &#8220;substantial public harm&#8221; to the public interest.<\/p>\n<p>Free Press says that former president Donald Trump&#8217;s statements on the coronavirus could violate the &#8220;broadcast hoax&#8221; rule. The petition specifically names the former president&#8217;s March 2020 claim that &#8220;I hear the numbers are getting much better in Italy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sohn is a longtime progressive activist <a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/business-a-lobbying\/133681-net-neutrality-or-bust\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">known<\/a> for her &#8220;personal relationships with power players all over the capital,&#8221; according to <em>The Hill<\/em>. She cofounded Public Knowledge, a nonprofit that &#8220;promotes freedom of expression&#8221; and &#8220;an open internet.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Public Knowledge president Christopher Lewis told the <em>Free Beacon <\/em>that the organization has no interest in government mandates against protected speech but said, &#8220;It&#8217;s hard for us to fight for free expression when there&#8217;s so much disinformation.&#8221; Although the group is working to pull OANN off the airwaves, Lewis asserts that the group remains committed to &#8220;free expression and promoting diversity of content.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The <em>Free Beacon<\/em>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/media\/conservative-cable-network-gets-behind-bidens-fcc-nominee\/\">reported<\/a> this month that OANN has thrown its weight behind Sohn&#8217;s nomination in the hopes that she will be an ally in disputes with cable carriers.<\/p>\n<p>Sohn faces an uphill battle in the Senate, where she is expected to appear on December 1. Senator Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) has called her &#8220;a hack&#8221; and vowed to fight her nomination. One source tells the <em>Free Beacon <\/em>that three or four Democratic senators are considering opposing Sohn because of her support for net neutrality.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Biden Administration Gigi Sohn&#8217;s political activism could influence her regulatory approach  Gigi Sohn (Photo by Chip Somodevilla \/ Getty Images)  Santi Ruiz \u2022 November &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1051711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1051711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1051711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1051711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1051711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1051711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}