http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/39440-the-first-amendment-may-not-protect-us-trump-s-fcc-intensifies-war-on-press
"Media advocates everywhere were alarmed, if not surprised, when Donald Trump recently appointed former Verizon lawyer Ajit Pai to be the next chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Central questions include what Pai's appointment will mean for freedom of the press and the future of the internet. Sources who have met Pai, who is active on social media, describe him as smart and affable, but with a militant, ideological opposition to regulating Big Media and Telecom. An FCC controlled by Trump and Pai, the latter of whom has "been on the wrong side of just about every major issue that has come before the FCC," according to the media reform group Free Press, poses a serious threat to democracy. Pai, an FCC commissioner since 2012, has constantly sided with the powerful media and telecom lobbies. He pledged to take a "weed whacker" to net neutrality, opposed lowering the cost of phone calls for families of people in prison, and enabled devastating media concentration with his opposition to ownership restrictions. His promotion to chairman was met with glee from free-market ideologues and executives at big media and telecom companies, such as AT&T, who promised to help Pai "support the president's agenda." Trump has already shown an extreme level of hostility toward the press. Now, he will have the Pai-led FCC to function as his own personal toolbox to undermine the free press. As Americans unite in resistance to Trump, it is vital that they take notice of what is going on at the FCC."
