Daring Democracy by Frances Moore Lappe & Adam Eichen

Author:Frances Moore Lappe & Adam Eichen [Lappé, Frances Moore]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8070-2391-4
Publisher: Beacon Press
Published: 2017-03-03T16:00:00+00:00

MOBILIZING FOR DEMOCRACY’S MEDIA

Democracy lives or dies on the quality of public conversation. “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government,” Thomas Jefferson wrote, “I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Analyzing how to fix our broken news system, from corporate control of media to fake news, is far beyond the scope of our book. Nonetheless, we want to offer a few paths that democracy defenders are pursuing, starting with net neutrality.

If you’ve heard the term “net neutrality,” is it something you imagine only Internet fanatics can grasp? Not at all. It simply refers to baseline protection ensuring that no Internet service provider can “interfere with or block web traffic, or favor their own services at the expense of smaller rivals.”83 As such, it is integral to democratic dialogue. And net neutrality’s recent history offers an encouraging story of the power of the people to protect the core democratic principle of free exchange.

In December 2010 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) passed what those most concerned considered “pretty weak half measures” prohibiting Internet service providers from blocking websites or imposing limits on users, says Craig Aaron, president and CEO of Free Press. And by 2014, a federal lawsuit brought by Verizon succeeded in striking down even this half measure.84 Verizon’s hubris ignited a massive call for the FCC to fight back. Protests demanded even stronger rules to reclassify Internet service providers as “common carriers,” requiring them to act as neutral gatekeepers to the Internet and to protect access for all.85

By May 2014, inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protests, concerned citizens had set up camp in Washington at the FCC headquarters.86 It had all started with a protest organized by Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese. Margaret, a pediatrician who cut her teeth in the fight for universal health care, and Kevin, a lawyer who fought injustices in the 1980s War on Drugs, announced at the protest’s end that they were not going to leave. The duo rolled out their sleeping bags on the grass, stayed the night, and before they knew it, the occupation grew drastically. Fellow concerned citizens flooded in with tents and banners. One day followed the next, each to the tune of passing cars honking in solidarity. Not only did employees of the FCC come out to thank the occupiers, but three of the five FCC commissioners came to meet Flowers and Zeese.

A week later, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler put out a “notice of proposed rule-making” that asked the public, “What is the right public policy to ensure that the Internet remains open?”87 The preferred solution put forward by the FCC, outlined in the notice, would have left the door ajar for a “two-tiered Internet” plan wherein Internet service providers could sell content providers priority access to their subscribers at rates only big companies could afford.88 Citizen reformers couldn’t and wouldn’t get behind this proposal.

But the notice also sought public comment on whether the FCC should “reclassify” the Internet as a common carrier under the law.

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