After a grueling 16 months, Gigi Sohn today withdrew her nomination to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
President Biden first nominated Sohn to the FCC in October 2021. Traditionally, the FCC is composed of five members, including the commissioner. And the majority come from the party of the current president. For instance, the previous FCC under the Trump administration had three Republican commissioners and two Democrat commissioners, and the chairman was a Republican – Ajit Pai.
But Sohn’s nomination suffered from harsh Republican opposition from the beginning, including personal attacks on her character.
Today, Sohn issued a statement saying that when she accepted the nomination, she “could not have imagined that legions of cable and media industry lobbyists, their bought-and-paid-for surrogates, and dark money political groups with bottomless pockets would distort my over 30-year history as a consumer advocate into an absurd caricature of blatant lies.”
Indeed, some of the character assassinations were over the top. For example, an article appeared in the Daily Mail on January 26 suggesting that Sohn’s association with the Electronic Frontier Foundation — a non-profit that protects freedom of speech — meant that she supported online sex work.
One roadside billboard in Las Vegas proclaimed, “Gigi Sohn is too extreme for the FCC." The billboard was paid for by the American Accountability Foundation, a group that has opposed Biden nominees.
Today, Sohn said the unrelenting dishonest attacks had taken an enormous toll on her and her family.
Some, such as longtime telecom executive Preston Padden, who now runs his own consulting company, suspects that U.S. cable operators were the main culprits behind all the character bashing of Sohn. Cable operators are vehemently opposed to reinstating net neutrality — something that Sohn favored when she served on the staff of former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler from 2013-2016. Sohn also supports municipal broadband, something that is anathema to cable companies such as Comcast.
Sohn apparently had enough today after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) announced he would not vote to confirm her to the FCC. Manchin’s vote is important in a Senate that’s so narrowly divided between Democrats and Republicans.
Padden said simply, “The industry won. Consumers lost.”
What’s next?
For the FCC, Sohn’s withdrawal means that it will continue with its two Republican, two Democrat deadlock for the foreseeable future until President Biden nominates someone else and they go through the Senate confirmation process.