Gigi Sohn withdrew her nomination to the Federal Communications Commission, dashing for now President Joe Biden’s push to restore internet-service regulations gutted by Republicans.
(Bloomberg) — Gigi Sohn withdrew her nomination to the Federal Communications Commission, dashing for now President Joe Biden’s push to restore internet-service regulations gutted by Republicans.
Sohn, 61, said in a statement Tuesday that she had been assailed by “cable and media industry lobbyists, their bought-and-paid-for surrogates, and dark money political groups” with “unrelenting, dishonest and cruel attacks.”
Sohn’s withdrawal leaves the telecommunications regulator in a 2-to-2 partisan deadlock until the Biden administration can produce another nominee to shepherd through the Senate, a task that could take months. In the meantime, efforts to restore net neutrality rules, which backers say are needed to ensure fair access to the web, remain in limbo.
“We appreciate Gigi Sohn’s candidacy for this important role,” White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said at a briefing. “She would have brought tremendous talent, intellect and experience, which is why the president nominated her in the first place.”
Sohn fell victim to Democrats’ narrow edge in the Senate, and to steadfast Republican opposition that took note of her sometimes inflammatory tweets, her time with an online service that was accused of violating broadcasters’ copyrights, and her criticism of Fox News as partisan.
Sohn’s approval would have given Democrats their first FCC majority of the Biden presidency. She could have provided votes for greater data privacy rules, and ones against broadcast consolidation. During her service as an FCC adviser under an earlier Democratic administration, Sohn advocated for weakening cable’s hold on the set-top box by providing alternatives for consumers — a proposal that was defeated.
A well-funded shadowy campaign contributed to her downfall, supporters said.
“The cable & telecom companies and the orgs they fund spent 16 months attacking & distorting her record,” Barbara van Schewick, a professor at Stanford Law School and supporter of net neutrality regulations, said in a tweet.
The American Accountability Foundation, a group that doesn’t disclose its donors and is led by a former Republican Senate aide, said in a tweet that it spent “hundreds of thousands of dollars” on billboards and advertisements opposing Sohn.
“She exposed herself, again and again, to be a radical, extremist, hyper-partisan, with serious ethical questions looming over her nomination,” the foundation’s president and founder, Thomas Jones, said in a press release. Jones worked for Republican senators and for Senator Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign, according to a foundation web page.
Sohn’s withdrawal was “a major victory” that “represents a strong bipartisan agreement that we need a fair and impartial candidate,” Cruz, a Republican from Texas, said in a statement. He was the top Republican on the committee that held hearings on Sohn’s appointment.
The Commerce Committee chairwoman, Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell, of Washington, in a statement commended Sohn for “integrity and fortitude” in the face of “a coordinated, hate-fueled campaign to malign and distort her character and record.”
Sohn said she decided late Monday to withdraw.
“The American people are the real losers here,” she said. “The FCC deadlock, now over two years long, will remain so for a long time.”
Broadband service will be more expensive for lack of competition, she added. “Minority and underrepresented voices will be marginalized, and your private information will continue to be used and sold at the whim of your broadband provider,” Sohn said in her statement.
Before the news broke of Sohn’s withdrawal, Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, announced he would vote against her. In a news release, his office cited “years of partisan activism, inflammatory statements online and work with far-left groups.”
FCC nominees normally don’t receive wide attention, but Sohn drew three committee hearings, the most recent last month.
She is well known in Washington after more than two decades of advocacy there, and after serving as counsel to the last Democratic FCC majority. Sohn has described herself as “an advocate for universal and affordable access to open and democratic communications networks.”
She founded the Public Knowledge advocacy group that often challenges communications industry stances before regulators.
–With assistance from Erik Wasson and Jenny Leonard.
(Updates with reactions beginning in the seventh paragraph.)
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