Today, the Senate Commerce Committee will consider the nomination of Gigi Sohn to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The hearing is expected to begin at 10:15 A.M. You can watch a live stream here.
Here’s the bottom line: Republican Senators should be united in opposing Sohn’s nomination. She is a woke activist with a penchant for censorship, and regardless of what she says privately, nobody should doubt that she’ll use her perch at the FCC to go after conservative speech and conservative-leaning press. Gigi Sohn has one professional goal in life: to take down Fox News. That’s always been her focus, and it always will be.
Last night, Tucker Carlson covered the Sohn nomination on his show with Fox Business Senior Correspondent Charles Gasparino:
My organization, American Principles Project (APP), announced our opposition to Sohn’s nomination yesterday. Here’s our full statement:
Gigi Sohn is one of the most infamous woke activists in Washington calling for mass censorship of conservative viewpoints. And unlike some of her less imaginative peers, Sohn has bigger ambitions than simply weaponizing Big Tech platforms against Republicans — she has her sights trained on the entire media landscape. That makes her incredibly dangerous.
If confirmed as an FCC commissioner, Gigi Sohn will oppose free speech — or at least the free speech she personally disagrees with — at every turn. Her anti-First Amendment record is alarmingly consistent. Sohn co-founded Public Knowledge, an organization that has called for cable companies to drop conservative news outlets. She has personally advocated for Congress to look at the spread of so-called ‘misinformation’ and ‘disinformation’ on Fox News and has demanded the FCC investigate whether Sinclair Broadcasting Group is ‘qualified to be a broadcast licensee at all.’ She has also endorsed the idea of the FCC invoking an arcane ‘broadcast hoax’ rule to ban COVID-19 ‘disinformation’ on the airwaves, which would have likely stymied important reporting on the lab leak theory that has now gained significant traction.
Censorship is not an American principle, but censorship is what Gigi Sohn wants to impose on a massive scale. This is an affront to our Constitution and a very real threat to the future of our democracy. Any senator who truly values the preservation of our free society should strongly oppose Sohn’s confirmation.
APP also signed on to a coalition letter led by Americans for Tax Reform opposing Sohn’s nomination. The letter was signed by 16 different groups.
A key section:
Sohn has spent decades as a hyper-partisan activist, launching attacks against regulators and elected officials who do not share her views. She implied that the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee is an industry puppet. She suggested that Republican senators are a threat to the country. She credits center-right news outlets with “destroying democracy” and “electing autocrats.” And she joined the board of an organization after it was sued by major broadcasters for violating the Copyright Act—a case that recently resulted in a $32 million judgment against her organization. Given these views, it is hard to believe that Sohn would give regulated entities a fair shake or operate in a bipartisan manner at the FCC.
The FCC plays a critical role in protecting and upholding free speech and the First Amendment rights of regulated entities. Sohn’s willingness to use the FCC’s power to silence her opponents is disqualifying on its own. Sohn has expressed interest in the FCC revoking hundreds of broadcast licenses from a particular broadcaster due in part to the editorial decisions that company has made. She supported a campaign by elected officials to pressure cable and streaming services to drop conservative news outlets. And she closely aligns with an organization who petitioned the FCC to investigate broadcasters whose COVID-19 coverage they disagreed with.
The right to free speech isn’t something to mess around with. It’s the foundation of our democracy — everything else falls apart without it. Gigi Sohn wants to create a centralized public square where autocrats and oligarchs have total control over speech. Does that sound familiar? For the sake of our country, let’s hope the Senate rejects someone who would use their power to impose such a dangerous and anti-American idea!