Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Will Obama Take Control of the Internet?

Well, it seems as if Barack Obama has long called for an effort for nationalized broadband access...from his site:

"...let's lay down broadband lines through the heart of inner cities and rural towns all across America.”

"Let's" meaning the government, funded by you, of course. Anyway - Say Anything brings up some salient points:

Wouldn’t it just be cheaper to let private enterprise handle internet access? And wouldn’t government-run internet be sort of like government-run postal service? Do we really want our internet experience to be about like our post office experience?

Betcha Obama thinks the Post Office runs just fine, thank you, and wishes he could set up 100 similar agencies to do 100 similar jobs that the private sector does just fine. But maybe Obama has a different motive?

The FCC is already pushing plans for a national wireless internet access initiative, and if that happened that would probably mean that the agency would want to extend the same sort of content controls it exercises over broadcast television and radio to the internet. Obama’s plan could come with the same sort of regulation.

Given Obama’s penchant for using lawyers and thug tactics to pressure and intimidate people he disagrees with, how much of a stretch is it to believe that an Obama administration would implement strict new regulations on online free speech?


Between the ObamaNet and a reinstated Fairness Doctrine, I am sure the First Amendment will fare just fine under a Democratic-controlled federal government...

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