By SUZANNE DOWNING, PUBLISHER
In Gigi Sohn’s world, police officers are armed goons.
The law-enforcement-hating nominee who is fighting to join the Federal Communications Commission, if confirmed, would be in charge of the nation’s airwaves, and she’s shown time and again that she doesn’t have the judgment to police our news and our views.
The FCC, created in 1934 as a nonpartisan regulatory body, rules over interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable. Governed by a board of five, there are currently two conservatives and two liberals on the commission.
Sohn has been nominated by President Joe Biden to serve in the fifth seat, where she could tip the balance of power to the worst inclinations of the Left, which these days prefers to dictate what speech is acceptable.
Yes, the federal regulatory agency has the power to have a chilling effect on news reporting, as it has a limited role in governing news coverage and accepting and reviewing complaints about bias on the airwaves.
President Biden could not get this radical, defund-the-police nominee through the confirmation process in 2021 and 2022, and for good reason. Sohn’s history of statements deeply offensive to at least half of America’s voters shows that she is not ready to protect conservatives, because, in fact, she’s on a mission — a partisan mission.
Sohn has, on the record, called Fox News “state-sponsored propaganda,” that is “dangerous to democracy.” She called police, who have opposed her nomination, “armed goons.”
Sohn shared a Twitter post that called former President Donald Trump a “raggedy white supremacist president.” She called Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh an “angry white man” during his confirmation hearing. We can only imagine the response from Democrats if a nominee had called President Barack Obama a “raggedy black supremacist president” or had called him an “angry black man.” These are racist comments on their face and show that Sohn doesn’t have the judgment needed to serve in this important role.
Sohn once called on the FCC to investigate whether Sinclair Broadcast Group, a conservative-leaning local TV network, deserved a broadcast license. Judgments like that should matter very much to upstart broadcasters such as OAN or NewsMax.
How offensive is Sohn? She’s so partisan, she’s even become an embarrassment to Democrats. Last year, although she made it through Sen. Maria Cantwell’s Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer didn’t bring Sohn’s name to the floor for confirmation. He could not muster the votes among members of his own party. That is saying something. What do they know about Sohn that the rest of us don’t know?
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) sits on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and believes Sohn is unfit for this powerful role in regulating communications.
“You’re baffled that [police] are opposing you after you called them armed goons?” Sullivan asked the nominee, who made her appearance before the committee on Tuesday. Sullivan was responding to Sohn saying she was baffled that the National Association of Police Organizations opposes her nomination.
NAPO wrote, “It’s profoundly concerning to us that a nominee for a commissioner of the FCC has harbored such an openly hostile and defamatory view of the police.”
In response, Sohn said she was baffled because out of 18,000 Twitter messages she had written or reposted, there are only 11 that she believes have raised concerns.
“Those 11 tweets, most of them were ‘Police brutality is bad,’ ‘Police shouldn’t have tanks and be in an armored vehicle.'” She was taking editorial license and Sullivan was having none of it.
Sullivan pushed back, “Armed goons?”
Sohn responded, “Again, that’s one tweet out of 18,000.”
Sullivan pointed out that an FCC commissioner has “enormous power, particularly as it relates to free speech, particularly as it relates to liberty in our country.”
As for Sohn’s past statements about Fox News, Sullivan said, “You are now up for confirmation of one of the most powerful positions on free speech. I think that disqualifies you completely.”
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) warned that the FCC can’t afford to capitulate to the movement among Big Tech to deplatform conservatives: “Putting Ms. Sohn on the Commission would create deep mistrust of the FCC among half our population.”
The FCC has the power to throttle how America communicates, what news citizens can access, and it needs to be nonpartisan. Gigi Sohn isn’t just highly partisan, she’s an extremist.
The people of America deserve better. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of communications experts who would be qualified as nominees for this position and who would not have the biased baggage.
We can’t trust Gigi Sohn with her own Twitter hot takes, and we sure cannot trust her to regulate the airwaves.
Suzanne Downing is publisher of Must Read Alaska.
First of all anyone appointed by this Administration is questionable. Either they are being appointed because of who the sleep with, what color their skin is, or how they dress, OR they are being appointed because they are solid leftists who worship at the alter of the All Powerful State.
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Everything I see about this woman is the latter. I am absolutely sure the FCC will be weaponized against any conservative voice, or even the liberal ones that speak out against the official Narrative. If you think it is OK for AT&T’s DishNetwork to drop top rated channels like Newsmax and OANN, this woman is your ally. Any case filed with the FCC against AT&T will be slow walked, or dismissed for a minor technicality.
Elections have consequences.
America voted in an angry, corrupt, senile man. Why? Orange man was icky and made mean tweets.
This is what happens when people vote with emotion instead of common sense.
It would have been nice if Trump just would have kept his damn mouth shut. He’s a worthless piece of crap human being. We didn’t have anybody ready to trot out though so we were stuck with him. In the end only was was an embarrassment. Maybe with DeSantis we can get back to morals and doing what’s right for the country instead of what’s good for a deranged ego.
Despite what one thinks of Trump’s ego or personality, his policies, that stuff that actually impacts people’s lives, were good for the world and great for America.
Joe Biden seems consistent in being able to find the worst of the worst to serve in his government….There is not a single person in his cabinet or among his appointee’s that you would trust to buy a used car from!!! as he continues his race to the bottom there seems to be no bottom for the Biden crime family…
And we are the laughing stock of the world. Americans use to be smart now after years of brain washed schooling we are just a bunch of rocks.
She couldn’t muster the votes over a year ago when being considered. But now, after more than a dozen cash donations to democrats FROM her, yes from her, she is trying again. When Cruz asked her how she could ever consider donating cash to the Congressional voters WHEN she is being voted on, she responded that it wasn’t that much.
She missed the point… On purpose. A reasonable person knows it looks worse than bad.
For the record, EVERY Biden nominee so far that gets to be voted on has had 100% democrat support and votes for two years now.
Numerous Trump nominees did NOT get the vote by Republicans. One party recognizes a ham sandwich when it sees it.
And if an actual ham sandwich was nominated by Biden, I’m afraid we know what the Democrat vote percentage would be.
Yep. The Dems stick together like Nazis.
Also for the record: almost every single “swing” vote on the Supreme Court was nominated by a GOP President.
When the libs nominate a SCOTUS judge, that judge votes lib EVERY SINGLE TIME.
The GOP nominated judges make rulings according to law & the constitution, nor according to the politician who gave them the job.
Do you realize that his article is about an FCC commission nominee, not a Supreme Court nominee?
She made a donation to a politician she supports, which every American has the right to do. If that’s the worst you and Cruz can find on her, she’ll sail thru. By the way, Sohn has an established record as a consumer advocate. You’re a consumer, right? And there are lots of consumers in Alaska, right? Or is that you don’t support nominees who have a D next to their name, regardless of how much Alaska would benefit? Also, she’s being attacked by a well-funded campaign by the cable TV/internet provider industry because she can’t be bought. Maybe you ought to check the campaign contributions made to Alaska politicians named in the article by those special interests.
This article is just another partisan hit job by this publication. This article just repeats the arguments of big industry lobbying groups who are against equality and competition on the web. I wonder if those special interest groups actually fund this publication. First, Sohn supports net neutrality. That means the same internet speeds for everyone, or do you enjoy having your internet speeds throttled? She also supports better internet access for rural areas, which would benefit lots of Alaskans. And she never called the police “armed goons.” She retweeted a tweet criticizing the militia that Trump sent to Portland Oregon a few years ago to foment riots. And they were “armed goons.” Many people, including conservatives, have said so. She did criticize Fox News as “propaganda” because (news alert!) Fox News is propaganda. BTW, Fox News is currently being sued for billions for spewing lies. You can look it up in the real news. They admit that they lie.
M. Walsh, I will agree with you about Fox News, but having said that, can you honestly say that MSNBC or CNN are any better? Arguably, they are even worse propagandists than Fox!
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Your pointed omission of damning those networks along with Fox speaks volumes.
Really? It “speaks volumes” that I don’t condemn MSNBC and CNN as propagandists? I never said either network was perfect, but Murdoch and his “news” outlets are doing great damage to this country trading in manufactured outrage, and MSNBC and CNN don’t have business models based on lying. Neither MSNBC or CNN spread election lies (even though Fox knew Trump lost, as they recently admitted) and neither is getting sued for billions as a result. If there’s any justice, Murdoch will have to pay. And please cite examples when either network knowingly spread lies to help one political side.
Russian Collusion comes to mind in the first milli-second.
First, those networks never stated that there was collusion. They reported on an investigation into collusion and on the evidence. That’s news. Trump also obstructed that investigation numerous times, and those networks reported on that, cuz that’s news. Then Barr ended the investigation before it was complete and then lied about the results. That’s news. BTW, why would Trump obstruct an investigation if he was innocent?
Also, we know that the Russians helped Trump during his 2016 campaign. There’s a great deal of evidence of that. Trump also asked the Russians to help his campaign during a campaign speech in 2016. We also know that Don Jr met with Russians who were offering to help the Trump campaign. He said he would “love” their help. So the Trump wanted to “collude” with the Russians. We also know that Trump’s campaign manager, Manafort, owed a Russian oligarch $20 million, and that he met with a Russian in a NYC bar during the campaign and gave campaign and US voter data to the Russian. Why did he do that? Trump then fired Manafort. Why did he do that?
So we don’t know if Trump colluded with the Russians during his 2016 campaign, but he probably did. You might want to read some actual information on the case, which you won’t get in the right-wing media echo chamber.
Another delusional radical leftist spewing corporate media talking points and outright lies. Shame on you, M, for your pathetic attempt to gaslight us here with proven LIES and pro-establishment propaganda.
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And yes, MSNBC and CNN are even worse than Fox in the propaganda realm, wildly and shamelessly so.
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The depths of delusion and divorcement from reality on the part of you radical leftist extremists never ceases to amaze me. You are just another cultist without an independent or rational thought in your head.
This knothead is another hippie who never got the word that the hippie movement ended over 40 years ago.
Hippie? This article isn’t about a hippie? What are you talking about?
Our angry, white President is a puppet of the leftists that voted him in.
I hope he joins Senator Fetterman in the hospital soon, he needs medical care, not political power.
She was bad before and she’s bad now. I’m holding my breath waiting to see if lisa or dan vote for her.
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