Sohn: President's Support Gave Chairman Cover For Title II

Gigi Sohn, top aide to the FCC chairman, told C-SPAN that Tom Wheeler had been considering a Title II option for new Internet access rules for quite a while, and that the President's endorsement was more like cover for doing what the chairman had already wanted to do, rather than pressure that made him pivot toward it.

But Sohn also points out that Wheeler also listened to the comments of over 4 million people.

The chairman has been catching heat from Republicans for appearing to pivot toward Title II at the same time the President made an online pitch, and for the White House's urgings to an independent agency, the subject of a story by Wall Street Journal reporter Gautham Nagesh.

For the full story go to Multichannel.com.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.