UPDATED, with info on Fox News segment: Gigi Sohn, Joe Biden’s choice to fill a fifth slot on the FCC, told a Senate committee on Wednesday that she has been subject to “unrelenting, unfair, and outright false criticism and scrutiny,” as she’s been a target of attacks from the right and industry lobbyists raise issues that have delayed her confirmation process.
Sohn’s nomination is significant because her confirmation would give Democrats a 3-2 majority on the FCC, allowing it to move forward on contentious issues like net neutrality and media consolidation. Since last year, the commission has been split between the parties 2-2.
Under questioning before the Senate Commerce Committee, Sohn said that some companies have been “opportunistic” in seizing on one issue: whether she should recuse herself from matters that she has previously weighed in on as a public interest advocate, including her tenure as co-founder of the group Public Knowledge.
Sohn said, “I think there are certain very large companies that would like the FCC continue to be deadlocked. It’s no secret.”
Soon after Sohn was nominated in late October, it was clear that her confirmation process would be contentious. The Wall Street Journal editorialized against her and Fox News’ Tucker Carlson did a segment accusing her of trying to stifle free speech.
Yet her years as a public interest advocate, including as cofounder of Public Knowledge, she’s taken positions that at times put her at odds with major and telecom conglomerates and Hollywood studios. It’s also drawn the attention of the creative community: The Directors Guild of America opposes her nomination, the Writers Guild of America West supports it.
Sohn would be the first opening LGBTQ commissioner if confirmed, but there’s uncertainty as to when a vote would take place.
Wednesday’s hearing showed that partisan lines have only hardened, meaning that Democrats may need all of its members present to clear her nomination. That won’t happen until Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) returns after suffering a stroke, and Sohn acknowledged that may push a confirmation vote off until April or May or even later.
Sohn previously testified before the committee in December, but was called to a second hearing as Republicans raised issues about her involvement in Locast. The non-profit service provided streams of broadcast signals, but suspended operations after broadcast networks sued for copyright infringement and a federal judge ruled in their favor.
After the National Association of Broadcasters raised issues with Sohn’s involvement as a member of the board overseeing Locast, she voluntarily agreed to recuse herself from issues related to retransmission consent and broadcast copyright. Broadcasters then said that resolved their concerns.
But a central focus of Republican questioning of Sohn was why she shouldn’t also recuse herself from a host of other issues that she spoke out about when she was at Public Knowledge. Given the scope of that group’s public advocacy, such a move would effectively neutralize her as an FCC commissioner. The NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, representing cable companies like Comcast, and USTelecom, representing telecom firms like AT&T, suggesting that the broadcast industry was singled out for special treatment to win their support for her confirmation.
Sohn told lawmakers that her recusal was tied to her work on the board of Locast, and that it was voluntary, and narrowly tailored over issues that likely won’t come before the FCC. She said that to recuse herself from any issue she worked on at Public Knowledge would set a standard with “No limiting principle, and no one with any knowledge who has ever spoken about these issues would ever be qualified to be an FCC commissioner, and that is perverse.”
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) and other Republicans suggested that Sohn was not forthcoming in providing details of Locast’s settlement agreement with the four major broadcast networks. Although the judgment against the company was for $32 million, the agreement called for a payment of only $700,000.
Sohn told Wicker that she did not disclose the details because was “bound not to discuss the details of the settlement agreement. … I took the confidentiality agreement very seriously.” Bloomberg Law published details of the agreement last month.
Sohn faced even more contentious questioning from Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AS) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), the latter of whom accused her of getting a “sweetheart deal” from the networks just as she was being nominated to the FCC. But Sohn said that the terms of the settlement were reached on Oct. 12, and at the time she was still uncertain if she would be nominated. “I had given up,” she said. She signed the agreement later that month, the day after her nomination was announced, and it also released her from liability.
Other Republicans also again raised issues about some of Sohn’s past tweets, including those critical of Fox News, which have led to commentators on the right accusing her of trying to stifle conservative speech.
As she did in her past hiring, Sohn cited her support from leaders of other rightward outlets, including Newsmax and One America News Network, while acknowledging that she would slightly regret the tone of some of her tweets. Another group, the Parents Television Council, announced their support for her nomination just before the hearing began. Sohn also noted that the FCC does not have oversight over Fox News, a cable network.
Pressed even further on her tweets by Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), Sohn said, “Can we put this censorship thing to bed? It is a little bit ridiculous.”
Democrats on the committee came to Sohn’s defense, as Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) praised her “transparency and tenacity” and said that the opposition was “part of an effort to deadlock, disarm and disable the FCC.” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) noted the historic nature of Sohn’s nomination. “I have been a first a few times in my own career, and I know that is not easy,” said Baldwin, who is the first openly LGBTQ person to become a U.S. Senator.
Still, Republicans lined up against Sohn’s nomination. Sen. John Thune (R-SD), a member of Republican leadership, sent out a tweet after he questioned Sohn saying that she is “not fit to serve at the FCC.
“She has deceived Senators about business conflicts, recused herself from certain FCC matters, & called conservative outlets ‘state-sponsored propaganda.’ She won’t be an impartial commissioner or review matters in a fair & neutral way.”
Update: Just hours after Sohn told lawmakers that she would “have no oversight, if confirmed, over Fox News,” Cruz appeared on Jesse Watters’ Fox News show to rail against her nomination.
As Cruz was interviewed, Fox News ran a chyron that read, “Biden picks Fox hater to regulate Fox.” But that is misleading. As the FCC notes on its website, “the agency is prohibited by law from engaging in censorship or infringing on First Amendment rights of the press.”
Moreover, the FCC has limited authority over cable content, as it is broadcast stations that are licensed by the FCC. Fox News is not a broadcaster, although Fox Broadcasting and its television stations are. All are owned by Rupert Murdoch, who has been at odds with public interest advocates for years over issues of media ownership and consolidation, which Sohn has defended.
It’s a consistent pattern. Joe Biden keeps nominating Left-wing radicals.
He nominated a pro-criminal DA to be a US Attorney, nominated a lawyer who wrote about his hatred for conservatives to be a federal judge, and he has nominated someone who hates Fox News to the FCC. pic.twitter.com/v45Kd4e1F1
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 10, 2022
Preston Padden, who was the former top lobbyist for Murdoch’s News Corp., has urged the Senate to approve Sohn’s confirmation, even though they had disagreement on a number of issues. After the hearing, Padden wrote on Twitter, “Today’s hearing was a home run for FCC nominee Gigi Sohn. She was measured and knowledgeable. Well done.”
He also noted one of Cruz’s comments, that Fox News declined to sign the Locast settlement. But Fox News was not a plaintiff in the case, Fox Broadcasting was.
Padden wrote, “At Sohn hearing Sen. Cruz sneered that it was ‘telling that Fox News was the only network that did not sign the Locust settlement.’ Is it possible that the Senator really doesn’t understand the difference between over-the-air broadcast channels and cable channels like Fox News?”
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