Open letter to Commissioner Michael J. Copps - Part I
                       Federal Communications Commission
                       Washington, DC 20554

On Friday, April 23, 2010, you appeared on Bill Moyers Journal -- thank you for that. I want to reproduce a portion of your discussion in order to set the stage for my answer to the question featured on your website.

What are ways in which the 
FCC can better engage the 
public in open proceedings?

From Bill Moyers Journal:

MICHAEL COPPS: I don't think we're talking about regulating the Internet. I'm talking about keeping the dynamism of the Internet that's there. I'm talking about keeping it open. We've had the generally speaking, with a few exceptions openness on the Internet.

So we want to preserve that. What we're trying to be careful of is that the gatekeepers and the tollbooth operators aren't just regulating the Internet for their self interest, or for competitive advantage. And I'm not saying they shouldn't compete, or anything like that. Obviously, they're businesses and all. But, at the end of the day, again, we need to know what's going on, on that network management, know how they're using this technology, and have that visionary public policy out there that says, "We understand how important this is to the future of this country. And there are some responsibilities that go with the great power that you, as companies, have been given."

I am glad that you have used the term, "open" -- and that you want to "keep it open". Unfortunately, you will need to define "open" followed by an assessment of just how "open" the Internet really is -- particularly when you realize that the Internet is such a small part of the problem.

BILL MOYERS: How powerful is this industry you're up against?

MICHAEL COPPS: I think it's a very powerful industry. An industry that increasingly has control over how we converse with one another, other than sitting across the table and talking, how we converse with each other, on the media, through journalism and all of that. That's maybe the most important industry in the country or in the world. You know, if your big issue is energy dependence, or climate change, or health insurance, or expanding equal opportunity, this issue of the future of the media, now the media on broadband, has to be your number two issue. Because, on that one, depends on how that big issue that you your number one issue gets filtered and funneled to the American people. 

You, of course, were talking primarily about the Internet. Please understand that the Internet is a subset of the Personal Computer industry and must be regulated as part of that industry. I recognize that this combination may complicate government oversight; however, separating the two will result in less than optimal regulation.

More from Bill Moyers Journal:

MICHAEL COPPS: I think you stop playing defense and start playing offense and talk about what you really believe and try to talk sense to the American people. But it goes beyond that because we have to have an institution of journalism in this country that gets real facts and information out to people. We've always had the chatterers. We've always had precursors of you know, raging cable, or talkative radio. And we always value opinion. Everybody's entitled to their opinion. Everybody's not entitled to their own set of facts. And what this country needs right now is a kind of resource hungry expensive journalism that is fast disappearing to provide those kind of facts. And that gets us to the new media that we were talking about, and the old media too. Newspapers and broadcast still produce 85 or 90 percent of the news and information that the American people get, even the news that they see on the Internet. 

And it's not just talking about what's going to happen ten years from now on the Internet, although that's an important question. How are we going to have viable journalism there? How do we get from here to there? Because I don't think we can take another five or ten years of the kind of diminution of journalism closing of newsrooms, the near demise of investigative reporting. We can't tolerate that and expect that we're going to have the American people sufficiently informed to do what they need to do.

I am glad that you brought journalism into this discussion because "saving journalism" is a necessary preliminary to "saving the Personal Computer", itself a necessary preliminary to "saving the Internet"

What are ways in which the 
FCC can better engage the 
public in open proceedings?

To be continued:

Doug Skoglund - skoglund@pdmsb.com
SandS Software, Inc.
3396 Yankee Doodle Lane #120
Eagan, MN 55121-1732
651-454-8393
http://pdmsb.com

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