This week, POTUS renominated public-interest advocate Gigi Sohn to serve on the Federal Communications Commission.
Gigi Beth Sohn is the co-founder of Public Knowledge. She previously worked for the Ford Foundation. In 2013, Tom Wheeler hired her into a senior staff position at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. She left there shortly after Donald Trump's election in 2016.
‘President Biden first nominated Sohn to the position in October 2021, but unfortunately, she faced an intense smear campaign orchestrated by groups funded by the telecom and broadcast industries who are seeking to deadlock the federal agency that oversees their businesses.
No other FCC nominee in history has had to wait so long for a confirmation vote in the Senate. Sohn's confirmation has been repeatedly derailed as deep-pocketed communications industry lobbyists have staged underhanded attacks against the nominee.
Gigi Sohn: Round Two
She has been renominated as a commissioner for the FCC, which would break a partisan deadlock at the agency and give Democrats the majority. https://prospect.org/politics/2023-01-05-gigi-sohn-fcc-nomination/
According to published reports, the industry has bankrolled right-wing and other astroturf groups to place false, anti-Sohn attack ads that have been viewed by tens of millions of people.
The failure to confirm Sohn has slowed the agency’s ability to adopt policies to close the digital divide, prevent price-gouging by internet service providers, promote diversity and localism in broadcast ownership, and more.