Biden FCC pick Gigi Sohn would have been the first openly-LGBTQ commissioner in agency history. But after a multi-year, homophobic telecom and media industry smear campaign derailed the needed votes, Sohn withdrew her name from consideration, leaving the agency’s top media and telecom regulator without the staff or voting majority needed to do its job.
Sohn, a widely popular former FCC advisor and consumer advocate, was belatedly appointed by the Biden administration to the FCC in October of 2021. But it wouldn’t be long before Sohn became the target of a coordinated character assassination campaign bankrolled by major telecom and media giants and seeded across major media outlets.
The attacks accused Sohn of literally everything; from being “anti-police” because she shared calls for modest police reform on Twitter, to claims she was an enemy to both Hispanics and rural Americans. GOP lawmakers also circulated false claims that Sohn was a partisan radical, keen on using her FCC post to unfairly censor conservatives.
Most were seeded in media outlets via nonprofits linked to companies like AT&T, Comcast, and News Corporation. More recent attacks stumbled toward the homophobic, distorting Sohn’s sex work policy reform at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in a bid to make it sound seedy, while falsely claiming Sohn “opposed” efforts to combat sex trafficking.
Absolutely none of the claims were true. But it didn’t matter. The attacks provided flimsy justification and cable news sound bites for GOP senators keen on blocking Sohn’s nomination vote in the Senate. But a source familiar with the nomination process says Sohn’s nomination was ultimately doomed by just three key Democratic senators: Joe Manchin (D-WV), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and Mark Kelly (D-AZ).
Without Manchin, Masto, and Kelly’s support, Sohn couldn’t get the 51 vote Senate majority needed for confirmation.
In a statement, Manchin insisted he was opposing Sohn’s nomination due to what he claimed was “toxic partisanship” on the part of Sohn. Her primary sins: retweeting calls for modest police reform on Twitter, and calling Fox News Corporation “state-sponsored propaganda.”
Yet in 2017 Manchin voted to confirm Trump FCC pick Ajit Pai, whose tenure was not only marked by rank partisanship, but was also plagued with repeated and numerous scandals, ranging from making up a DDOS attack (to downplay public opposition to the net neutrality repeal), to turning a blind eye while the telecom industry used fake and dead people to pretend Pai’s FCC had widespread support for widely unpopular policies.
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“When I accepted his nomination over sixteen months ago, I could not have imagined that legions of cable and media industry lobbyists, their bought-and-paid-for surrogates, and dark money political groups with bottomless pockets would distort my over 30-year history as a consumer advocate into an absurd caricature of blatant lies,” Sohn said in a statement.
“This means that your broadband will be more expensive for lack of competition, minority and underrepresented voices will be marginalized, and your private information will continue to be used and sold at the whim of your broadband provider,” Sohn added.
Consumer groups say the primary culprit in sinking Sohn’s nomination was an obstructionist GOP, whose top telecom donors aren’t keen on the Biden FCC reversing unpopular Trump administration policies, whether it’s restoring media consolidation rules or popular net neutrality protections.
But consumer groups also reserved plenty of ire for key Democrats, noting that Senate leaders failed to whip the needed votes, routinely buckled to GOP demands for additional, unnecessary show hearings, showed little urgency in bringing Sohn’s confirmation vote to the floor, and failed to provide messaging support as Sohn faced down a brutal smear campaign, alone.
“They’re probably celebrating at Comcast and Fox today, and their lobbyists deserve most of the credit for concocting lies to derail her nomination,” Craig Aaron, CEO of consumer group Free Press, said of Sohn’s snub. “Republicans who willfully spread those lies must be thrilled, too. But they’re not the only ones to blame: The failure of Democratic leaders to stand up to industry-orchestrated smears cost the agency—and the nation—a true public servant.”
By law, the party that controls the White House enjoys a 3-2 commissioner majority at the FCC. By blocking Sohn’s nomination, the telecom industry has ensured that the agency can’t take action on any issues deemed remotely controversial by industry.
“It is a sad day for our country and our democracy when dominant industries, with assistance from unlimited dark money, get to choose their regulators,” Sohn said. “And with the help of their friends in the Senate, the powerful cable and media companies have done just that.”
Without a functioning voting majority the FCC can’t do its job; whether that’s holding the wireless industry accountable for its routine abuse of sensitive consumer location data, protecting broadband users from ISP fraud, or taking action against broadband monopolies that refuse to upgrade their networks in poor and marginalized U.S. communities.
The Biden administration will now be forced to pick a new FCC Commissioner, presumably more to the industry’s liking. But that new confirmation and hearing process could take the better part of this year, ensuring that whoever is chosen—if they’re ever actually seated at all—has very little time to implement any real telecom or media policy reform ahead of the next presidential election.
Sohn’s snub is a particular thorn in the side of the Biden administration’s looming plans to distribute more than $45 billion in new broadband subsidies made possible by the recently-passed infrastructure bill. Without a full staff, it’s more difficult for the agency to fix its inaccurate broadband maps, or ensure funding is equitably distributed.
“As someone who has advocated for my entire career for affordable, accessible broadband for every American, it is ironic that the 2-2 FCC will remain sidelined at the most consequential opportunity for broadband in our lifetimes,” Sohn said. “This means that your broadband will be more expensive for lack of competition, minority and underrepresented voices will be marginalized, and your private information will continue to be used and sold at the whim of your broadband provider.”
Four four years under Trump, the FCC was seen as little more than a mindless rubber stamp for the telecom industry. For two years under Biden, the agency has been effectively lobbied into apathy and gridlock. The result: six straight years where the country’s top media and telecom regulator has effectively sidelined courtesy of industry lobbying.
The federal government’s ongoing failure to shake off telecom lobbying influence and implement meaningful and widely popular telecom and media industry reforms has only rekindled local state, town, and city efforts to build better, more affordable alternatives to monopoly power.
