Mignon Clyburn Will Kill Net Neutrality

Obama is about to nominate Mignon Clyburn to the FCC, and for those of you who want the internet to turn into a low-rent version of cable TV, dominated by Rupert Murdoch and a few other right-wing billionaires, this is very good news.
For the rest of us, it sucks.


Mignon Clyburn is a member of some obscure utilities boards in South Carolina... AND...Jim Clyburn's daughter, and it isn't because of those obscure utilities commissions way down in Dixie that Obama is about to put Mignon Clyburn in a position of tremendous influence over the future of the internet.
Her resume is a joke.

And yes indeed, I know she was publisher of the Coastal Times, an impressive title which is always featured prominently in her bio, but I also know that the Coastal Times was nothing but a rag that was distributed free to area churches. It only existed to give Clyburn's otherwise unemployable daughter the shadow of an occupation, and as soon as Big Jim Clyburn hooked her up with her first commission, the Coastal Times disappeared without a trace.

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2009/5/6/19530/58333

Open Left, Talk Left, No Quarters and the Black Agenda Report?

I don't remember any of them every supporting Barack Obama. :eyes:

Now they are doing a character assasination against Clyburn's daughter because she is his daughter?

Guess they are still mad at him for South Carolina and his stern rebuke of the Clintons. :eyes:

At least, Big Tent and Jeralyn did. Some of the commenters were having a hard time with it.

And I thought Open Left endorsed Obama during the primary?

I'm finding a lot of insinuation and very little meat.

So far I don't see how she kills anything.

Here's what I'm finding.....

Clyburn's nomination would complete the Democratic majority on the five-person FCC. She would be joining current acting Chairman Michael Copps and Obama's March 3 nomination of Julius Genakowski to serve as the FCC chairman. The Republicans have yet to forward to Obama their choice for an open GOP seat on the panel.

Genakowki has yet to have a confirmation hearing as Republicans are insisting the proceeding also include the Republican nominee.

Genakowski is widely considered to be the architect of Obama's Technology and Innovation Plan, which supports the "principle of network neutrality to preserve the benefits of open competition on the Internet." He is the former top aide to two former Democratic FCC chairmen, co-founder and managing director of LaunchBox Digital and Rock Creek Ventures, a former executive with Barry Diller's IAC and a board member of several Internet ventures, including Expedia and The Motley Fool.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Government-IT/Obama-Makes-Mignon-Clyburn-Second-FCC-Pick-356054/
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As far as big Washington jobs go, a famous last name can be a blessing or a curse. Sure, carrying the last name of, say, Pelosi is probably going to get your requests for an interview responded to with alacrity. But couple your high-profile parent with a powerful policy job with billions of dollars at stake, and things get messier. What's certainly going to make your life even worse: being a mystery to the people already inhabiting the policy world you're diving into. Folks in politics hate being caught not knowing anything about a suddenly big player in their field of expertise. (Remember those uncomfortable hours in late August of "It's pronounced Pal-in. No no, I think it's Pah-lun. Wait, no, it's Pay-len! Yes, yes, of course. And she's the uber-conservative governor of...")

Such is the uncomfortable situation Mignon L. Clyburn finds herself in this week. Clyburn has been nominated by President Obama to serve on the Federal Communications Commission, replacing Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, as the Wall Street Journal's Amy Schatz reports. For more than a decade, Clyburn has served on South Carolina's Public Service Commission, which oversees telecommunications and other utilities in the state. Before that, Clyburn was the publisher, general manager, and editor of the Coastal Times newspaper from 1984-1998. She's a graduate of the University of South Carolina with a degree in banking, finance, and economics.

And, oh yeah, she's the daughter of House Majority Whip James Clyburn.

Though Clyburn's name has been floated as an FCC pick for some time, not much is known about her record on the South Carolina PSC. In that vacuum, there's been a scramble to frame her nomination based on we do know about the situation. And some telecom advocates are having a strongly negative initial reaction to her nod. Sascha Meinrath, a research director at the New America Foundation, titles his post "A Disaster for Public Interest?," Meinrath suggests "the dominant feeling" amongst telecom advocates is that Clyburn "is extremely tight with the telecom incumbents and that having her on the FCC will all but ensure a stalemate that will prevent any meaningful telecom reforms from being passed." If that's true, Meinrath writes, "President Obama would have really sold the public interest down the river." Meinrath argues that the rank of the paterfamilias of the Clyburn family sullies the nomination of the daughter: "Even objectively this looks like a traditional 'inside baseball' quid-pro-quo -- appointing the daughter of a powerful congressman to score political points just doesn't look good." On the blog Obsidian Wings, Publius titles his/her post on Clyburn, "Obama's Harriet Miers?"

The subtext here that helps explain the particularly charged concern with which some folks are greeting Clyburn's pick: the coziness between the Congressional Black Caucus and telecom companies, which is seen to influence CBC members' approach to stuff like broadband rollout and net neutrality. Jim Clyburn is, of course, a major figure in the CBC (and a former chairman).
http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/grumblings-over-obamas-little-known-fcc-pick-famous-last-name

Ms. Clyburn is the eldest daughter of House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., who was considered a key Obama ally during last year’s presidential campaign. But Ms. Clyburn’s qualifications seem to extend beyond family connections – she sits on the Washington Action Committee of the National Association of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners (NARUC), has served on South Carolina’s utilities board for the past 10 years and was head of the Charleston weekly newspaper for 15 years.

Michael Copps, the FCC’s acting chairman, issued a statement calling Ms. Clyburn “an excellent choice.” NARUC officials said much the same, praising Obama for choosing someone who brings “a crucial state perspective and ... experience on telecommunications and infrastructure issues to the commission.”

Ms. Clyburn now awaits Senate confirmation, as does Julius Genachowski, Obama’s pick as permanent FCC chairman. But that still leaves two vacant commissioners’ seats. Democrat Jonathan Adelstein is leaving the FCC to oversee the Rural Utilities Service and Republicans must cast their pick for someone to fill Debi Tate’s empty chair.
http://www.xchangemag.com/hotnews/clyburn-presumed-next-dem-at-fcc.html


besides the same article "Obama and Mignon are gonna kill Net Neutrality" being posted all over the Internet, the bigger truth appears to be that folks don't really know who she is well enough,
and they are associating her with her Father's vote. Something suspicious about the CBC and the Telecom industry that I was unaware of.


I'm gonna write to Barbara Lee and ask her about this. She is afterall the Chair of the CBC, my congresswoman and an acquaintance of mine. I'm sure she has the dirt on Mignon Clyburn, if there is any....and if Barbara Lee is ok with her, so will I.

it up. Coastal Times is the name of several publications both print and online. The particular CT for which Clyburn served as publisher is not a free publication and it is still publishing weekly as it has been for 30+ years.

Julius Genachowski is a big Net Neutrality Advocate.

Its hard to believe this appointment will kill Net Neutrality. When the head of the FCC is a big Advocate for it.