Reply #14: Funny where the bold goes, isn't it? [View All]

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

Howard Dean
It’s to be expected that Dean is a great proponent of all things wired. Credited with revolutionizing campaigning and fundraising on the Internet, he knows his constituency well. He’s said that “universal Internet access should be a federal goal” and associated himself with Laurence Lessig, a main proponent of open source and the public domain. But while his online campaign, blogging and talk of bottom-up strategy is considerable, he has skirted taking a position on the legislation posed to extend copyright, perhaps because many of his supporters are executives in the entertainment industry. Dean also is very critical of the FCC deregulation, saying that it was “one of the foremost issues on citizens’ minds” and that the proposed actions would threaten free speech and free discussion. He praised congressional delay of the deregulation in mid-September, endorses a permanent reversal and even states that “we need to consider going even further than that by reregulating media ownership.”


John Kerry
He was one of the most outspoken candidates regarding the FCC rollback of regulations, but it didn’t help him as much as other candidates. He said the FCC decision “represents the continuation of a conscious pattern—a new kind of institutionalized unfairness” and that “Maverick Republican Teddy Roosevelt understood the dangers of corporate consolidation, but the point seems lost on Mr. Bush.” He was quick to work in the Senate to nullify the FCC’s vote, saying, “The FCC should do more than rubberstamp the business plans of narrow economic interests.” Kerry has sponsored broadband tax credit legislation, was an original supporter of the E-Rate and said the FCC and the Bush administration had shown a “disheartening” lack of interest in closing “the very real digital divide.” He supported the 1996 Telecommunications Act.

Check out his personal broadband and telecommunications holdings.