One argument made against the FCC’s regulatory push is that the general public is largely happy with its internet service. Support for net neutrality was seen as the domain of special interest groups like Free Press.
The activist group has big money behinds its effort. It has received $2.2 million in donations from progressive billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundations and $3.9 million from the Ford Foundation.
And one of Free Press’ co-founders, Robert McChesney, a communications professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, has not been shy about his desire to see the internet regulated heavily.
(RELATED: A Leading Net Neutrality Activist’s Neo-Marxist Views)
But internet regulation appears to be only part of McChesney’s more radical agenda of completely revamping how the media operate in the U.S.
“In the end, there is no real answer but to remove brick by brick the capitalist system itself, rebuilding the entire society on socialist principles,” McChesney wrote in a 2009 essay.
“Only government can implement policies and subsidies to provide an institutional framework for quality journalism,” he said.
“The news is not a commercial product. It is a public good, necessary for a self-governing society. Once we accept this, we can talk about the kind of media policies and subsidies we want,” McChesney once argued.
Sentiments such as these have raised questions about whether the FCC’s new regulations will eventually lead to oversight of internet content.
“The unthinkable has become thinkable, and the free-market Internet – one of freedom’s greatest triumphs – is set to be reduced to a public utility, subject to pervasive economic regulation and, in turn, to content control,” ...
But internet regulation appears to be only part of McChesney’s more radical agenda of completely revamping how the media operate in the U.S.
“In the end, there is no real answer but to remove brick by brick the capitalist system itself, rebuilding the entire society on socialist principles,” McChesney wrote in a 2009 essay.
“Only government can implement policies and subsidies to provide an institutional framework for quality journalism,” he said.
“The news is not a commercial product. It is a public good, necessary for a self-governing society. Once we accept this, we can talk about the kind of media policies and subsidies we want,” McChesney once argued.
Sentiments such as these have raised questions about whether the FCC’s new regulations will eventually lead to oversight of internet content.
“The unthinkable has become thinkable, and the free-market Internet – one of freedom’s greatest triumphs – is set to be reduced to a public utility, subject to pervasive economic regulation and, in turn, to content control,” ...
