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June 2, 2011

Re: Radical Media Activists at Free Press Coordinated With FCC Commissioner to Write, Place Pro-Net Neutrality Op-Ed

Peter Suderman, on the radical media activists at Free Press coordinating with Obama's staunch net-neutrality supporting FCC Commissioner Michael "Would love to have jurisdiction over everything" Copps to write and place an oped by Copps for the Albuquerque Journal:

It's always been clear that Free Press, a liberal advocacy group that agitates for what it labels "media reform," has been one of the biggest drivers of the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality agenda -- an agenda that paid off last December when the FCC finally passed net neutrality regulations. The group's radicalism has at times been explicit: Its co-founder, Robert McChesney, has written of "the need to promote an understanding of the urgency to assert public control over the media." And yet despite the agenda of its founder, the group remains quite powerful. Not only does the group have close ties with MoveOn.org, and thus considerable influence with the progressive activist base, it landed a former staffer, Jen Howard, as press secretary in FCC commissioner Julius Genachowski's office.

Chairman Genachowski's office isn't the only Free Press ally at the commission. The group also maintains close ties with FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, who has long been one of the most vocal supporters of the most stringent form of net neutrality regulations. Indeed, his support for the strictest version of the policy has been seen as so strong that in the days and weeks before the rules passed last year, multiple sources indicated to me that there was uncertainty about whether he would vote for them because he thought the proposed rules might be too weak.

[...] In December of 2010, though, Copps provided one of the three votes that made the proposed rules official. How close were Copps's ties to Free Press before the vote? Close enough that one month before the vote, Free Press staffers Jenn Ettinger and Misty Perez explicitly coordinated with Copps's communication staffers Margaret McCarthy, John Giusti, and Joshua Cinelli to draft and place an op-ed supporting net neutrality, according to emails between the FCC and Free Press turned up in an investigation by JudicialWatch.org.

Readers should take the time to read Suderman's excellent background piece in order to gain a perspective on the Obama administrations big power grab.

Related: The Neomarxist who is helping to influence Obama’s media policy

Posted by Hyscience at June 2, 2011 1:02 PM

• Re: Radical Media Activists at Free Press Coordinated With FCC Commissioner to Write, Place Pro-Net Neutrality Op-Ed - Jun 02, 2011