Public Knowledge Releases Second Pai-Pounding Video

Public Knowledge has released another slick video making the argument that the FCC under Chairman Ajit Pai is at cross purposes with a Donald Trump agenda promoting competition and decrying the lack of choice/monopolization of health care choices under Obamacare.

The group is pushing back on various fronts, including against the potential reversal of Title II, the chairman's planned deregulation of the broadband business data services (BDS) market, and much more.

The YouTube video intercuts Trump statements about competition and criticism of the AT&T/Time Warner deal, Jared Kushner talking about broadband competition, House Speaker Paul Ryan talking up competition and criticizing monopolies with the kind of grainy, washed out or black and white photos of Pai that political ads use to make their opponents look plucked from a wanted poster.

Related: FCC's Pai Praises Verizon Fiber Buy

The message is that Pai is protecting the monopolies that the populist Trump Administration takes aim at and the FCC chairman needs to "get on board" by promoting broadband competition.

But the President has signaled he opposes the Title II classification of ISPs, and signed into law the Republican Congressional Review Act resolution invalidating the related broadband privacy rules.

That follows a Pai attack video the group released earlier this week featuring a "pie" with various pieces being loaded on a plate of "broadband monopolies" while a plate representing consumers remains empty. The "giveaways" in the video included net neutrality, and the BDS deregulatory item Pai plans to vote at the April 20 public meeting.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxS7NOtMjUQ[/embed]

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.