Free Press, AFP Battle Over Broadband Regulation
May 12, 2010
| 2:03 PM
A rhetorical war appears to be breaking out between the free-market group Americans for Prosperity and the public interest group Free Press over FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's decision to reclassify some aspects of broadband as a telecommunications service.
Genachowski announced last week that he was launching a proceeding to subject the transmission component of broadband service to Title II provisions under the Communications Act.
AFP said Tuesday that it was launching a $1.4 million ad campaign to oppose the effort, claiming the FCC is attempting a government takeover of the Internet. The campaign's first television ad aims to link the FCC proceeding to federal government bailouts of the banks, insurance giant AIG and the auto industry and urges viewers to oppose the FCC's plan. "First it was the banks, then insurance, then the car companies, then health care. Now Washington wants to spend billions to take over the Internet," the ad says.
Free Press shot back Wednesday claiming AFP is an "AT&T front group" aimed at blocking efforts to protect consumers and implement network neutrality rules that would bar broadband providers from discriminating against Internet content. Groups like Free Press urged the FCC to reclassify broadband as a telecommunications service after a federal appeals court ruling last month cast doubt over the FCC's authority over broadband.
"Net Neutrality is the opposite of a government takeover of the Internet. But the truth is irrelevant to front groups like AFP, which think that if you lie often and loudly enough, you can brand any issue as its opposite," Free Press Research Director S. Derek Turner said in a news release.
Previously, AFP has claimed that Free Press has a radical left-wing agenda and was founded by someone who opposes capitalism. At its policy summit Tuesday, Free Press President and CEO Josh Silver described such claims as "McCarthyesque accusations" aimed at diverting attention from the debate over policy issues.
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