Media Center

The Trump Administration's fake net neutrality scheme is a ridiculous illustration of the price we pay for the outrageous influence of money in politics.

Today, Common Cause urged White House communications director Sean Spicer to return to established norms and allow cameras and live audio feeds at daily White House press briefings.

Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied the emergency stay motion filed by public interest groups, including the National Hispanic Media Coalition, Free Press, Common Cause, Media Alliance, and United Church of Christ, OC, Inc., which sought to prevent the Federal Communications Commission from implementing its decision to reinstate the so-called UHF discount. This will allow the FCC to make it easier for the nation’s largest television ownership groups to acquire additional stations, and crowd out diverse and local voices. The groups are represented by the Institute for Public Representation at Georgetown University Law Center. Despite this interim ruling, the Court will hear the appeal later this year.

Few people have ever walked through the doors of the Federal Communications Commission with as much knowledge, experience, and good judgement as Jessica Rosenworcel. I know from personal experience that she is among the most capable ever to hold the title of Commissioner, and her return to the Commission could not come at a more propitious time. With the Open Internet, media localism, and diversity all under threat, the public interest has never needed a public interest servant of her caliber so acutely. I urge Congress to confirm her with dispatch.

Reports that Capitol Police officers may have been directed to obstruct reporter access in Capitol are deeply disturbing. American democracy depends on an adversarial press, but recently press freedom has been under attack as rarely before.

Today's proposal, if approved, will cut the open internet off at the knees. The majority at the Commission has invited a few telecom giants to design and control our communications future and relegates consumers and innovators to passive recipients of what the big boys deign to provide us. This is exactly the opposite of how the internet was supposed to function, with citizens empowered to frequent the sites and services of their choice - not subject to corporate censorship or slow lanes.