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Senator Doesn't Buy FCC Justification For Killing Net Neutrality (dslreports.com)
From a report: Senator Edward Markey this week questioned FCC boss Ajit Pai's justifications for killing popular net neutrality rules in a hearing in Washington. We've noted repeatedly that while large ISPs claim net neutrality killed broadband investment, objective analysis repeatedly finds that to be a lie. That's not just based on publicly-available SEC filings and earnings reports, but the industry's own repeated comments to investors and analysts. But that doesn't stop AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Charter (and the ocean of politicians, think tankers, consultants and other PR vessels they employ to make this misleading argument in the media on a daily basis) from making the claim anyway. And while Pai once again this week breathlessly proclaimed that net neutrality put a damper on network investment, Markey simply wasn't having it. "Publicly traded companies are required by law to provide investors accurate financial information, including reporting any risks or financial burdens," Markey said. "However, I have found no publicly traded ISP that has reported to its investors by law that Title II has negatively impacted investment in their networks. Many, in fact, have increased deployment and investment."
Obama was known for asking Congress to "put a bill on [his] desk" long before he would sign an executive order to do the same thing. He tried constantly to get them to do their jobs, but they were too busy arguing about trivial political points instead.
When you watch the video of the exchange, Markey was being given data he was asking for. He just ignored it.
Markey says there's no data that Network Neutrality hurts investment, while Pai responds by pointing to the data saying it does. Markey doesn't do anything to say why he'd ignore the facts Pai is bringing out; he simply restates that it doesn't exist.
Here's the video clip: https://www.c-span.org/video/?...
Elsewhere in the hearing another senator runs with the data provided by the FCC, pointing out that analysis shows broadband investment was harmed by the Open Internet Order while identifying issues with the NYT analysis saying otherwise.
We need to be clear here that Markey was ignoring information that didn't suit his conclusion. He was cherrypicking.