Preston Padden to Commerce: Gigi Sohn Is Needed Voice on FCC

Preston Padden

Former News Corp. and Disney executive Preston Padden continues to advocate for the FCC nomination of Gigi Sohn despite being on the opposite side from Sohn on some high-profile issues.

Padden sent a letter to the leadership of the Senate Commerce Committee, which is holding a second hearing on Sohn's nomination after it failed to get a planned vote in the committee last week.

Padden did not take issue with holding the hearing, which some Sohn fans have. But what he did take issue with, according to a copy of the letter, which he asked to be put in the record for her hearing, was the efforts by some of his friends at media companies and their associations to "throw sand in the gears" of her nomination.

Padden himself is a former trade association head, having run the Association of Independent Television Stations (INTV) where, like Sohn, he advocated for independent voices in a sea of larger players.

He says those friends are good people just doing their jobs, as he did, but advises Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) to focus not on whether or not industry players agree with Sohn but whether she is qualified, the answer to which he said is a "yes."

Padden disagrees with Sohn on the need for net neutrality rules and on her copyright stances. He points out that whoever gets the third Democratic nomination is going to support net neutrality rules, so that is not an issue specific to Sohn.

He also disagrees with Sohn over copyright issues, specifically Sohn's support of the now-shuttered Locast, which asserted a copyright exemption to stream TV station signals without having to ask or pay. A court concluded it did not qualify for the exemption and Sohn signed on to a settlement of the case as a board member. But he said that involved a legitimate question about copyright law that reasonable people can disagree about.

What he said everyone should agree on is that Sohn "is one of the most prepared and experienced nominees in the history of the FCC."

He points out that even NCTA president Michael Powell in what Padden called "unhelpful" comments still conceded she is "a respected and accomplished public interest advocate."

NCTA had issues with Sohn's offer to recuse from Locast-related issues, suggesting she either needed to recuse herself from other issues she has advocated for--like net neutrality rules, which NCTA opposes--or not recuse from any of them.

Padden said he does not have a vested commercial interest in Sohn's confirmation, but instead an interest in getting an "important voice" on the commission, and one "that belongs." ■

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.