June 2017

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai and Sen Ron Johnson (R-WI) each called network neutrality a "slogan" that solves no real problems, with the senator also arguing that the Internet should have paid fast lanes. "It’s a great slogan," FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said, when asked by a radio host what net neutrality is. "But in reality what it involves is Internet regulation, and the basic question is, 'Do you want the government deciding how the Internet is run?'"

Chairman Pai, who is touring midwestern states to meet with rural Internet service providers about broadband deployment, appeared with Sen Johnson on WTMJ Radio in Milwaukee. "As chairman Pai said, net neutrality is a slogan," Sen Johnson said. "What you really want is an expansion of high-speed broadband, and in order to do that you have to create the incentives for those smaller ISPs to invest. They don’t really control their own fiber if the government tells them exactly how they’re going to use their investment." Because of net neutrality rules, "there’s less incentive to invest, so we’ll have less high-speed broadband," Sen Johnson said.

[Commentary] Since assuming leadership of the Federal Communications Commission earlier in 2017, Ajit Pai has been working to roll back the stifling Obama-era rules to return the power of the internet back to consumers and the public. This will benefit everybody, but this is particularly personal for millennials and young consumers who have grown up online and are driving much of the innovation that we see in Silicon Valley. Tumblr, Mashable and Snapchat are just a handful of the many tech companies that millennials have helped start that are changing the way we live. But if bureaucrats and special interest groups have their way, the government will control the internet and pick winners and losers.

Younger consumers want a better, faster, cheaper internet – and a one-size-fits-all regulation that reflects the world of the 1930s is not the answer.

[David Barnes is the policy director of Generation Opportunity.]

[Commentary] Objectivity is an ethos built on the “shall nots” rather than the things that journalists might stand for. We shall not have insights independent of those we quote; we shall not take sides, even in things as fundamental as a better community; we shall not have feelings; we shall not be biased. Objectivity says, in essence, that journalists are not human. So how did we get to this place in journalism, and what do we do about it? I’ll describe this evolution in three stages. They are arbitrary. History, like life, rarely fits so neatly.

After a nationwide search for the American Library Association’s (ALA) new Associate Executive Director (AED), Washington (DC) Office, ALA has announced the appointment of Kathi Kromer to the role. Prior to joining ALA, Kromer was with The Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Association for 11 years where she was their Vice President, Strategy and Outreach. While with ALS, Kromer created and executed public policy and outreach strategy for ALS, with the goals of raising awareness, improving the lives of people with ALS, advancing ALS research, increasing organizational and government funding, and creating strategic partnerships. She worked collaboratively in cross-functional teams to integrate mission priorities of advocacy, care services, and research.

Kromer has a Master of Arts, International Commerce and Policy from George Mason University, Fairfax (VA) and a Bachelor of Arts, History and Political Science from University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown (PA). Kromer has more than 20 years’ experience working with Congress as well as with state governments.