With Public Eyes Increasingly on Pai, FCC, Net Neutrality Seen as Lens

Chairman Ajit Pai came under fire Sunday from the editorial boards of both The Washington Post (see here) for revocation of nine Lifeline broadband provider designations (see 1702060062) and The New York Times (see here) for an alleged broad anti-consumer agenda that includes revocation of net neutrality rules. The Post also said Pai's pulling back a set of reports (see 1702030058) "certainly throws cold water on his claims to transparency." Former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler tweeted out both editorials over the weekend, and Monday he leveled some criticism at the agency on broadband (see 1702130035). The Wall Street Journal last week lauded Pai for agency transparency revamps (see 1702100039). Pai's office didn't comment.

Pai inarguably instituted some good ideas on FCC transparency, but "I may be more impressed when I see the whole proposal to repeal Title II and net neutrality," after the uncontroversial draft agenda items he released earlier this month before the Feb. 23 commissioners' meeting (see 1702020051), said Gigi Sohn, who was a counselor to Wheeler. She said the Pai criticisms reflect disagreement with the substance of his actions, such as having the agency no longer defend parts of its inmate calling service regulations (see 1702060028). That Pai's FCC stopped its inquiry into zero rating "wasn't exactly a shock," Sohn said, saying many people see net neutrality "in peril" at the Pai FCC.

The attention being paid to the agency "is kind of stunning," said economics consultant and ex-Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth, saying "political forces outside the FCC" are likely feeding ideas to the newspapers' editorial boards. Pointing to the Lifeline revocations, he said, "It doesn't make sense, of all the things going on in the world, these [papers] would comment on the same relatively minor issues.”

The old FCC joke is that the chairman had to know only part of the alphabet -- “ABC, CBS, NBC and AT&T” -- because only those companies cared about the regulator, but the infrastructure the agency regulates has bigger economic consequences than ever, said Brookings Institution fellow Blair Levin. "As you affect that infrastructure, people care," he said, saying the level of public attention to the FCC isn't unprecedented because issues like the digital divide also attract considerable attention. Levin also said every chairman from now on is going to face conflict over broadband issues, and finding the balance between treating broadband like a common resource and like a private sector investment.

Net neutrality will be the filter through which proponents judge every FCC action, but "inside, Chairman Pai and the other commissioners are going to want to get a lot of other things done," Cleland said. He said net neutrality has become a primary issue in large part through net neutrality proponents "taking everything else hostage to net neutrality.”

“Pai is putting consumers first, not net neutrality," Cleland wrote Monday in The Hill, responding to the Times editorial, arguing the Wheeler FCC was pro-edge provider. In Forbes Monday, Tech Knowledge Director Fred Campbell called the Times and Post criticisms "liberal doses of doublespeak." Under current law, "neither Ajit Pai nor any other FCC chairman can end [the net neutrality] debate unilaterally because the agency hasn’t been given any specific guidance on how to craft a solution from Congress or the courts," Campbell said. "Attacking Ajit Pai’s every move won’t change that fact one iota.”