Blackburn Says Don’t Burden Federal Communications Commission With Regulating Communications
“Blackburn Campaigns To Keep Internet Free”, reads the headline on the official congressional web site of Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn. Keeping the Internet free? Free in what way? Free to be subject to increased charges so that telecommunications corporations can make a bigger profit.
Representative Blackburn’s bill, H.R. 3924, would prohibit the FCC from forming regulations that preserve the network neutrality that has made possible the proliferation of small voices on the Internet. Network neutrality keeps a level playing field in which everybody, from powerful corporations like Exxon Mobil to ordinary individuals, have equal access to Internet bandwidth.
Corporations have recently come up with plans to divide the Internet into two or more separate classes – an economy class for average Americans who don’t have a lot of money, and a super high class version of the Internet for the wealthiest Americans and corporations. If network neutrality were abandoned, telecommunications companies could place small web sites in a permanent slow lane unless they agreed to pay expensive new fees. The lower level of Internet traffic, not bringing as many profits to the corporations, would become a neglected sphere. So, the ability of independent voices to claim a place on the stage would become diminished, and as in the bad old pre-Internet days, a small number of organizations could gain the ability to decide what kind information the American people could easily find.
Representative Blackburn, on the other hand, regards equal access to Internet broadband as a barrier to freedom – the freedom of corporations to squeeze out independent voices. She is also concerned about the Federal Communications Commission, the body that is given the authority to regulate media that uses public infrastructure, as the Internet does, might be working too hard. “Let’s not add to their workload by giving them authority over the Internet,” Blackburn says.
Apparently, Blackburn believes that the Federal Communications Commission shouldn’t be burdened with considering… communications.
Keep the FCC out of the internet. No Regulations!!!!
Marsha Blackburn Voted FOR:
Omnibus Appropriations, Special Education, Global AIDS Initiative, Job Training, Unemployment Benefits, Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations, Agriculture Appropriations, U.S.-Singapore Trade, U.S.-Chile Trade, Supplemental Spending for Iraq & Afghanistan, Prescription Drug Benefit, Child Nutrition Programs, Surface Transportation, Job Training and Worker Services, Agriculture Appropriations, Foreign Aid, Vocational/Technical Training, Supplemental Appropriations, UN “Reforms.” Patriot Act Reauthorization, CAFTA, Katrina Hurricane-relief Appropriations, Head Start Funding, Line-item Rescission, Oman Trade Agreement, Military Tribunals, Electronic Surveillance, Head Start Funding, COPS Funding, Funding the REAL ID Act (National ID), Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, Thought Crimes “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, Peru Free Trade Agreement, Economic Stimulus, Farm Bill (Veto Override), Warrantless Searches, Employee Verification Program, Body Imaging Screening.
Marsha Blackburn Voted AGAINST:
Ban on UN Contributions, eliminate Millennium Challenge Account, WTO Withdrawal, UN Dues Decrease, Defunding the NAIS, Iran Military Operations defunding Iraq Troop Withdrawal, congress authorization of Iran Military Operations.
Marsha Blackburn is my Congressman.
See her unconstitutional votes at :
http://tinyurl.com/qhayna
[...] Serves Big Media Moneybags jclifford Yesterday, U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn introduced legislation that will forbid the Federal Communications Commission from doing its job by regulating … to Congress. The bill is aimed at preventing efforts by the FCC to preserve network neutrality, the [...]