Kerry named to head New Communication AND Tech Subcommittee

[Mass]

Good news for net neutrality,

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/174073-Kerry_Named_To_Head_New_Communications_Tech_Subcommittee.php

As expected, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller has created a new Communications and Technology Subcommittee, and had named frequent media critic John Kerry (D-MA) to head it up.
...

Kerry would likely not be the media's top pick for oversight of their industry.

Kerry is on the record as critical of the demise of the FCC's fairness doctrine, calling that demise one of the "most profound changes in the balance of the media," in a 2007 radio interview, adding that conservatives have been able to "squeeze down and squeeze out opinion of opposing views. I think it has been a very important transition in the imbalance of our public dialog."

He also has been critical of media consolidation and pushed the FCC to allow unlicensed devices in TV white spaces, something broadcasters fought hard against.

Kerry teamed with then-Senator Barack Obama to try and block the FCC's relaxation of the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership ban.

Kerry is also a fan of codifying network neutrality principles, something cable and phone networks would prefer evolved along with their industry.

[PBS Poll-435]

1. I hope Cantwell is on that Sub too

nt

[karynnj]

25. their website does not seem to have anyone other than the chairs and ranking members of the

sub-committees.

[babylonsister]

2. He's a busy guy, our Senator Kerry is. And I like him for this position. nt

[blm]

3. Media worked overtime to mute Kerry and distort him because of his longheld position against their

expansion of empire at the cost of our democracy.

[nc4bo]

6. Revenge is a dish best served cold (and calculating).

HOORAY for John Kerry!!!

[karynnj]

26. Kerry seems more motivated by what is right and matches our values

He even forgave Nixon after all he did against Kerry.

[Peace Patriot]

4. If you have time, insert "&" between "Communication" & "Tech," in your subject line.

It is a misleading subject line--seems like Kerry will head committee only to do with communications involving (new) technology (i.e., internet)--not communications AND technology. I was misled. I thought it was a committee on the internet. Then I read your OP text. It's broadcasting, airwaves, FCC, etc., AND technology.

[Peace Patriot]

5. EXCELLENT COMMITTEE CHAIR ASSIGNMENT!

No wonder they never said anything about the fast-tracking, all over the country, in a two-year period ('02-'04), of voting machines run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls. Dead silence in the corpo/fascist media about this, the most important assault on democracy ever mounted. They couldn't let this guy become president. He might not just stop their goddamn war profiteering adventures; he might have required FAIRNESS in the use of our public airwaves. Ye Gods!

[karynnj]

9. exactly - though I have always been leery of whining that

a candidate is treated unfairly because the media owners fear him - there is an extremely strong case to be made for Kerry - a true American patriot. He may not always be right - but he is one of the few people that I can name that can be pointed to as one who has in several instances taken heroic stands against the government condoning things that were wrong. (This might also explain why the AP and others still refer to the SBVT as "challenging Kerry's service" rather than "lying" even now - or why it was not the SBVT who were asked for proof that what they were saying which contradicted the official record rather than Kerry being asked to disprove it.)

But, we may be reaching a time where media will be willing to work with him. Our biggest newspapers are facing grave financial problems where there may be no real solution for each newspaper. I don't remember which early American leader said it - but there is truth in saying that without a free press democracy is not possible. Press would now mean something much bigger - but we still need good, accurate and unbiased information.

[Occam Bandage]

7. Kerry's becoming a Senate superstar! nt

[karynnj]

12. He really quietly has been for a long time

Think of the important issues - and here are a few where the country would be worse off had Kerry not been there.

Global Climate Change - In addition to praise from The President’s chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, James Connaughton, at this SFRC hearing http://www.senate.gov/~foreign/hearings/2008/hrg080124p.html , Kerry was the entire Congressional delegation to Bali. Even the Bush team praised the work he did before and at the hearing. Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, a member of the team (around 4 minutes in) said:

"The fact that we had a treaty was significantly due to the fact that Senator Kerry was there. He was a virtual part of our negotiating team, without his day and night support and lobbying of the EU. we would not have gotten a treaty."
http://www.kerryvision.net/2008/04/in_defense_of_treehuggers.html#comments
(Very little of this was covered - even in his home town paper.)

Last year, he was unofficially Obama's person at the follow up Poznan conference - as well as the whole Senate delegation. From Kerry's comments, at both Bali and Poznan, he had very good meetings with the Chinese delegation, who were uncooperative in past forums. At a recent SFRC hearing with Gore, Kerry enthusiastically asked Gore about his opinion of China and the US, the number 1 and 2 polluters working on a joint project to help both on global warming - to regain trust for both countries before the Copenhagen treaty. A few weeks, later, there have been stories that this might be something that will be announced when HRC goes to China. This is very likely something that Kerry had some input to or may have facilitated because of his long efforts with the Chinese delegation - as he has spoken of technology transfer with China for over a year.

International Financial issues - In a world where both foreign policy and finance are far more important than usual - and where understanding both together - given how interwoven the economies of the world are, it is interesting that in the last Congress, Kerry was the only Senator on both the Finance and SFRC committees. Yesterday, in the SFRC he held an "on the record roundtable" on how the financial crisis will affect foreign relations - http://foreign.senate.gov/hearings/2009/hrg090211p.html (This is an interesting hearing - though some of the economists seemed to not get the idea of a roundtable.)

He has also spoken of hearings on international tax havens - which need an international solution as they hurt all the countries whose peopel hide income. (At a Finance committee hearing last summer he and Jack Blum, who was a witness and had been the lead BCCI investigator for Kerry years ago, spoke of the need for this.)

Iraq - Obama comes to office with the country and the Democratic Senators (except Lieberman) and Congressmen all having backed a variation of Kerry/Finegold - as did Obama and HRC during the election - they moved to those positions after voting and speaing against K/F about a half year later. If Obama carries through with such a plan - it will be easier as the American people bought the need to do so. It was Kerry, who took the abuse to stand and make the case for using it as a lever to get the Iraqis to step up to really making the political decisions.

non-state terrorism So many people by 2006 had agreed with the position Kerry had in 2001 that was articulated in 2004, but which the country wasn't yet ready for, that Obama rarely had to address it - and when he did it was very close to same formula Kerry gave in 2004.

He is also doing some very interesting things with the SFRC. He had a roundtable on Afghanistan where the Senators and the witnesses had a "conversation". Drilling down into issues - challenging preconceived opinions and interacting to raise some very interesting ideas. It was the most fascinating hearing I've ever seen - once it really got going. Doing that takes a very confident Chair, willing to state opinion asking for it to be examined and challenged if it is not what others saw. http://foreign.senate.gov/hearings/2009/hrg090205a.html (There is another one scheduled on the Sudan tomorrow - http://foreign.senate.gov/hearings/2009/hrg090212p.html

[KittyWampus]

8. Outstanding! Kerry and his staff keep on top of things.

[Phx_Dem]

10. Great. As long as Diane Feinstein is far away from anything

related to communications and the Internet. I just read that she tried to sneak a provision into the stimulus bill that was anti-free Internet. She's such a Republican.

http://crooksandliars.com/silentpatriot/reasonable-network-management-difi-a

[karynnj]

13. Here was the April 2008 hearing on the future of the Internet

http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_ID=4c66f979-3001-490a-a985-5be63951adb7

Also, Kerry wrote and responded on this Daily Kos diary the day before that hearing. Nice that he was part of the internet conversation itself before going to that hearing. http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/4/21/13026/2437

[digidigido]

27. second that

[jillan]

11. Excellent news. Kerry has been on top of this issue for awhile.

[high density]

14. We need laws that stop these broadband pay by the gigabyte plans

Caps and overage charges are popping up on cable broadband access everywhere in an attempt to thwart users from accepting online video distribution. The per-gigabyte fees being charged are outrageous once you get over some microscopic bandwidth cap. These cable operators are trying to stifle competition.

[karynnj]

15. kick

[Inuca]

16. Very interesting n/t

[ohtransplant]

17. I really hate to gush...

but Senator Kerry is a great choice for this assignment. He'll do us proud no doubt.

What could be accomplished if we had more honorable, bright, tireless, articulate politicians with prosecutorial skills and who put the public first?

It seems he's everywhere. He's almost 20 yrs my senior and the guy makes me tired just watching him.

I've heard him say it's an honor to be a public servant. I suggest he also brings honor to public service.

[MBS]

21. .. what you said. n/t

[YvonneCa]

28. Oh, go ahead and gush...

...:7 GREAT post! I especially liked this "...the guy makes me tired just watching him." It is SO true. We are all very lucky to have John Kerry as a public servant.:patriot:

[politicasista]

18. Kick

Me is trying to learn more about Net Neutrality. (Sort of a newbie to this issue).

:kick: :patriot:

[ProSense]

19. Awesome. Op-ed by Senator Kerry:

02/12/2009

We must make good on the promise of access to broadband for everyone

This op-ed originally appeared in The Hill.

“This country needs a national goal for broadband technology, for the spread of broadband technology. We ought to have a universal, affordable access for broadband technology by the year 2007.”

Those words were spoken by President George W. Bush nearly five years ago, and they’re as true today as when he said them.

But, sadly, it’s even clearer now than it was five years ago that statements alone won’t finish the job of expanding access to broadband. Instead, the nation that invented the Internet has steadily slipped in global broadband ranking. When the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) first collected data on broadband subscribership in 2001, the U.S. was ranked 4th in the world. By the time President Bush made his promise, we had dropped to 12th. Five years later, we’re ranked an embarrassing 15th.

We face this challenge because the “laissez-faire” strategy that has proven effective for deploying broadband in densely populated areas has also left behind too much of rural America. According to the Pew Institute’s Internet and Life Project, only 38 percent of rural adults have a broadband connection at home, compared to 57 percent of urban adults. Even more disappointing, there are fewer low-income Americans with broadband connections today than there were just a year ago.

A high-speed Internet connection can be a powerful economic equalizer. This connection provides access to life-saving medical services and technology, as well as critical job training and educational opportunities, and that’s just scratching the surface of the exponential capacity broadband service has to improve lives and serve as a magnet for economic development. But without a strategy to ensure broadband access for all, many Americans will remain at a tremendous economic disadvantage.

Sound familiar? It’s because we’ve faced similar challenges in the past. In the early 1930s, nearly 90 percent of urban Americans had access to electricity, compared to just 10 percent of rural Americans. As part of the New Deal, President Roosevelt created the Rural Electrification Administration to bring electricity to the countryside.

As a result of the federal government’s efforts to establish rural electric cooperatives, the private sector was driven to electrify the countryside as well. The entire economy benefited from lighting up America’s farmland.

Today’s broadband challenge requires a laser-like focus from the federal government. We need a national strategy to get broadband Internet speeds into every American household, and it will require the federal government to partner with the private sector to get it done. President Obama has made it clear that broadband deployment is a priority for his administration, and that he sees it as a job creator. The American Reinvestment and Recovery Act for starters includes several billion dollars in grants and loans to build broadband infrastructure.

This is a good start, but much more remains to be done. We need to look at every available tool for providing broadband access to all Americans. We need to look closely at the Universal Service Fund to determine how the nearly $7 billion in annual cross-subsidies can be best used in a world where communications technology is increasingly dependent on the Internet. And we need to examine our national spectrum policy to determine whether we can encourage innovation in wireless broadband development in a more efficient way. Finally, we need to make sure that we are promoting an Internet that is open, transparent, and does not discriminate with respect to how consumers use it within the confines of the law.

I am looking forward to working with Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), Houe Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and House Telecommunications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher (D-Va.) to establish an aggressive national broadband strategy. With continued focus and leadership at the committee level as well as within the Obama administration, we stand poised to finally make good on President Bush’s promise and once and for all finally close what the politicians used to call “the digital divide.”

[Inuca]

22. As somebody

paying $60/month for LOUSY satellite service, I could not agree more.

[Doremus]

20. Yes! Kerry's often said he'd bring back the Fairness Doctrine.

I hope he can because it served our country well for decades.

We must marginalize the RW gasbags and the "free market" has seemed unable to do it, much to our detriment.

I also hope he institutes far more restrictive media ownership rules.

[karynnj]

29. Here is an article where he is qoted on that

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/109418-Kerry_Wants_Fairness_Doctrine_Reimposed.php (the video link unfortunately no longer exits.)

[blm]

30. He fought the FCC vote to expand media ownership for the big corps. They target him relentlessly

because of it. Swifts didn't 'just happen' in a vacuum. Corpmedia was complicit every step of the way.

[karynnj]

23. Kerry's statement on it

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, today announced the new subcommittees and subcommittee chairmen for the 111th Congress including Senator John Kerry as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.

The Subcommittee on Communications and Technology was reconstituted after its jurisdiction had been handled at the full committee level for the past four years. The subcommittee will have jurisdiction over the Federal Communications Commission, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

“I am grateful to my friend and Chairman, Jay Rockefeller, for his decision to reconstitute this subcommittee and hand me its gavel,” said Kerry. “There’s a huge agenda on our plates, from the digital television transition, expanding access to broadband, promoting greater diversity in media ownership, and following through on the 9/11 Commission recommendation to build a nationwide interoperable public safety network. I’m looking forward to diving into these issues and building consensus for good public policy.”

"John Kerry is the right person to lead the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology,” said Rockefeller. “He’s worked on these issues for years, he’s digging in to his committee work, and I know he fights for his priorities with a real passion. I look forward to working with him as we tackle the major economic challenges facing this country.” {/b]

http://kerry.senate.gov/cfm/record.cfm?id=308198

There are some big issues there to be dealt with. I really like Rockefeller's kind words.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

24. Excellent, informative thread all around. K,R, and B Thank You n/t