Certainly, threatening his family, or racist comments, is crossing the line.
And so is openly stating that the FCC should ignore public comments.
"FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler also had protestors outside his home before he
switched to a Title II approach to net neutrality rules--the approach Pai is
rolling back--but they were not threatening, and Wheeler even spoke with them
and posed for a photo at one point."
Tom Wheeler was not nearly as stuck-in-the-mud stubborn cuss as the current
Chairman is, which explains why the protest was peaceful. Wheeler had made it
abundantly clear, right from the start, that he wanted net neutrality mandated.
The only issue was how to go about it. This time is entirely different.
Chairman Pai is perfectly happy to ignore public comments, and to allow less
than a handful of companies to operate broadband service in non-neutral ways,
throttling, blocking, charging different fees to users, for access to different
Internet sites. Fox News disingenuously pretends to be oblivious of the
fundamental differences from then to now, because it suits them to play dumbass
in this case.
Yesterday, I posted an opinion piece from Forbes, where the author claimed that
"most people" people think of the government as a benevolent father figure. How
infantile to even believe this is true. This is not communist China, or any
other authoritarian state. The government here is more like your homeowners' or
condominium association. This type of association represents the voice of the
*homeowners*, and it is used to prevent individual bad actors from trashing the
neighborhood. Same applies to the FCC. It is supposed to prevent bad actors
from trashing US telecoms, and the FCC is supposed to act on our behalf. This
is their job, and people are telling the FCC to do their freakin' job! Simple,
really.
When 10s of millions of US citizens grasp that their FCC is hell-bent to allow
special interests to trash the place, of course some will go ballistic. What
did the Chairman expect? I've been predicting this would happen, from the very
first inkling that Chairman Pai was going to pursue this course. People are
perfectly familiar with way non-neutral MVPDs operate, and understandably want
none of that to apply to their Internet service. Just as people do not want
their telephone company to be non-neutral.
Bert
------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/washington/pai-others-call-out-hateful-protestors/170277
Nov 27, 2017 11:03 AM ET
Pai, Others Call Out Hateful Protestors
Chairman says signs naming his children cross line
By John Eggerton
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has told Fox & Friends that net neutrality protestors
have "crossed a line" with hateful signs that target his children.
Fox News reported Monday (Nov. 27) about the protests outside Pai's home. That
comes after Pai last week circulated an order to reclassify ISPs out from under
common carrier mandatory access regs and eliminate most of the bright-line
network neutrality rules.
"It certainly crosses a line with me," Pai told "Fox & Friends,"
"Families...should remain out of it and stop harassing us at our homes....It
was a little nerve-racking, especially for my wife who's not involved in this
space."
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler also had protestors outside his home before he
switched to a Title II approach to net neutrality rules--the approach Pai is
rolling back--but they were not threatening, and Wheeler even spoke with them
and posed for a photo at one point.
According to a Tweet from a neighbor cited in the Fox story, signs posted on
the street outside his home included ones naming Pai's children and saying he
was "murdering Democracy in cold blood," and asking how his kids could look him
in the eye.
Pai Chief of Staff Matthew Berry has also been re-Tweeting--by way of
condemning them--ome of the hateful and even racist messages aimed at Pai and
his family from opponents of his proposal, including one that said he should
get cancer and his family should be executed so they could not pass his genes
on.
Former FCC Chairman Mike Copps, now a special advisor to Common Cause, is one
of the strongest critics of Pai's proposal, but he told B&C, as he Tweeted over
the weekend, that there is not place for such hateful speech in the discussion
and that anyone who uses it against the current chairman is no ally of his.
He added that when he was on the commission he was concerned about hate speech
and would like to see more done to rein it in, adding that given how much
uncivil dialog is going on these days, the problem should be a little more
obvious.
Fred Campbell, president of Tech Knowledge, which backs Pai's Title II
rollback, stood up for the chairman and against the protests.
"The repeated racist attacks against FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and his family in
their own home during the holiday weekend are horrific," he said. "The
perpetrators of this villainy should be ashamed. These attacks aren't net
neutrality advocacy. They are terrorism."
Free Press President Craig Aaron distanced his group, which is strongly opposed
to the Title II rollback, condemned the tenor and tactics.
"We don't condone this type of harassment. We believe in rigorous public
debate," said Evan Greer, campaign director at Fight for the Future, which
called for protests of the pending vote to roll back Title II. "People who care
about this issue should be channeling their anger productively, and calling on
their lawmakers to take action to stop the FCC vote. "
Protestors also took to Pai's street back in May after the FCC voted to propose
the Title II rollback, but the the tone of the newest protests had an uglier
edge.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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