The Federal Communications Commission oversees regulations impacting our nation’s broadcasters. Rules creating an important and delicate balance to ensure the airwaves meet
the needs of the public whether they be in the most rural parts of America or the most urban.
Inexplicably, President Joe Biden continued to push the nomination of Gigi Sohn, who failed to garner the necessary votes for Senate confirmation in both 2021 and 2022. At the start of the new Congress, he again pressed the Senate to confirm this radical nominee, whose confirmation would tip the balance on the FCC.
Yesterday, thanks to the united opposition of the conservative movement, conservatives got the good news that Ms. Sohn has withdrawn her nomination, effectively eliminating her from contention for the post.
Two of the leaders of the conservative opposition to the Sohn nomination were Americans for Limited Government and the American Accountability Foundation.
As our friend Rick Manning, President of Americans for Limited Government said in a column announcing ALG’s opposition to the Sohn nomination:
Every nominee brings their own baggage and that is to be expected, but Ms. Sohn is carrying a truck load. As a private citizen she has advocated that the FCC deny the licenses of broadcasters who she perceives present too conservative of a viewpoint. It is fine for her to hold these views, but it is not okay for her to be confirmed to serve on the FCC, where she will have power to impose this government driven information censorship on the broadcasting community.
The American Accountability Foundation ran hundreds of thousands of dollars in billboards, newspaper ads, and digital advertise to educate the American people how wrong Sohn was for the FCC.
The Daily Caller reported Sohn made the announcement shortly after Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin came out against her nomination.
“The FCC must remain above the toxic partisanship that Americans are sick and tired of, and Ms. Sohn has clearly shown she is not the person to do that. For those reasons, I cannot support her nomination to the FCC, and I urge the Biden Administration to put forth a nominee who can bring us together, not drive us apart,” Manchin said in a statement.
Republicans have expressed concern with Sohn’s potential conflicts of interest due to her time at a streaming service. Sohn worked as the director of Locast, a streaming platform that transmitted local news broadcasts over the internet. A federal judge ruled in September 2021 that the company was violating copyright laws, and it was subsequently shut down.
However, conservatives objected to Sohn’s partisan advocacy and statements. She founded a tech policy think tank that received funding from billionaires Pierre Omidyar and George Soros. Sohn also tweeted racially-charged attacks against former President Donald Trump and Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Sohn was so bad and so toxic that even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell rejected Sohn saying, “The country needs our FCC commissioners to be thoughtful, sober, nonpartisan referees. Not activists and ideologues who want to bend our airwaves to their agenda.”
America will face many problems between now and the 2024 election, the last thing we need is a partisan wrecking crew in charge of the FCC disrupting our over-the-airwaves broadcast system. There simply is no place on a body as important to freedom of expression as our nation’s FCC for a speech banning radical idealogue like Gigi Sohn. Thanks to your response to our call to action, and the efforts of a united conservative movement, led by Americans for Limited Government and the American Accountability Foundation Gigi Sohn won’t be in a position to censor or deplatform our side in the debate.
Biden nominees
Senate confirmation
FCC Nominee
Gigi Sohn
Federal Communications Commission
censorship
First Amendment
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
Americans for Limited Government
American Accountability Foundation