Obama vs Technology

[Commentary] President Obama's disdain for new media has become so consistent that it is hard to dismiss as mere posturing.

Now that he has to govern, President Obama would just as soon dispense with all those niggling critics carping about his policies. It was better in the days when three liberals -- say Cronkite, Reasoner, and Brinkley -- had a monopoly over deciding what the news was every day, and synthesized it every night on TV. Then they let the New York Times echo those views the next morning. Those were the days.

And it is beginning to dawn on this White House that the Internet is not its friend and, in fact, that the web stands for the opposite of what has emerged as the Obama administration's animating spirit. The Internet is centrifugal, dispersing power outward; the Obama administration is centripetal, concentrating power at the center.

The Federal Communications Commission recently announced that it will ignore its own previous determination -- and a court ruling -- and proceed to regulate broadband communications. President Obama may be no Charles II, but those who truly love freedom of expression should remain vigilant.