Net Neutrality: The Most Important Free Speech Issue of Our Time

from The Huffington Post

The Most Important Free Speech Issue of Our Time
by Al Franken

This Tuesday is an important day in the fight to save the Internet.

As a source of innovation, an engine of our economy, and a forum for our political discourse, the Internet can only work if it's a truly level playing field. Small businesses should have the same ability to reach customers as powerful corporations. A blogger should have the same ability to find an audience as a media conglomerate.

This principle is called "net neutrality" -- and it's under attack. Internet service giants like Comcast and Verizon want to offer premium and privileged access to the Internet for corporations who can afford to pay for it.

The good news is that the Federal Communications Commission has the power to issue regulations that protect net neutrality. The bad news is that draft regulations written by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski don't do that at all. They're worse than nothing.

That's why Tuesday is such an important day. The FCC will be meeting to discuss those regulations, and we must make sure that its members understand that allowing corporations to control the Internet is simply unacceptable.

Although Chairman Genachowski's draft Order has not been made public, early reports make clear that it falls far short of protecting net neutrality.

For many Americans -- particularly those who live in rural areas -- the future of the Internet lies in mobile services. But the draft Order would effectively permit Internet providers to block lawful content, applications, and devices on mobile Internet connections.

Mobile networks like AT&T and Verizon Wireless would be able to shut off your access to content or applications for any reason. For instance, Verizon could prevent you from accessing Google Maps on your phone, forcing you to use their own mapping program, Verizon Navigator, even if it costs money to use and isn't nearly as good. Or a mobile provider with a political agenda could prevent you from downloading an app that connects you with the Obama campaign (or, for that matter, a Tea Party group in your area).

It gets worse. The FCC has never before explicitly allowed discrimination on the Internet -- but the draft Order takes a step backwards, merely stating that so-called "paid prioritization" (the creation of a "fast lane" for big corporations who can afford to pay for it) is cause for concern.

It sure is -- but that's exactly why the FCC should ban it. Instead, the draft Order would have the effect of actually relaxing restrictions on this kind of discrimination.

What's more, even the protections that are established in the draft Order would be weak because it defines "broadband Internet access service" too narrowly, making it easy for powerful corporations to get around the rules.

Here's what's most troubling of all. Chairman Genachowski and President Obama -- who nominated him -- have argued convincingly that they support net neutrality.

But grassroots supporters of net neutrality are beginning to wonder if we've been had. Instead of proposing regulations that would truly protect net neutrality, reports indicate that Chairman Genachowski has been calling the CEOs of major Internet corporations seeking their public endorsement of this draft proposal, which would destroy it.

No chairman should be soliciting sign-off from the corporations that his agency is supposed to regulate -- and no true advocate of a free and open Internet should be seeking the permission of large media conglomerates before issuing new rules.

After all, just look at Comcast -- this Internet monolith has reportedly imposed a new, recurring fee on Level 3 Communications, the company slated to be the primary online delivery provider for Netflix. That's the same Netflix that represents Comcast's biggest competition in video services.

Imagine if Comcast customers couldn't watch Netflix, but were limited only to Comcast's Video On Demand service. Imagine if a cable news network could get its website to load faster on your computer than your favorite local political blog. Imagine if big corporations with their own agenda could decide who wins or loses online. The Internet as we know it would cease to exist.

That's why net neutrality is the most important free speech issue of our time. And that's why, this Tuesday, when the FCC meets to discuss this badly flawed proposal, I'll be watching. If they approve it as is, I'll be outraged. And you should be, too.

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Al Franken is an Emmy Award-winning comedian, the author of five New York Times best-sellers, and was the host of Air America Radio’s “The Al Franken Show.” He’s the United States Senate from Minnesota.

'Left of Black': Episode #14 featuring TJ Anderson and Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Left of Black #14—December 20, 2010
w/Mark Anthony Neal

Left of Black Host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal is joined by composer T.J. Anderson and Queer media activist and writer Alexis Pauline Gumbs on location at the Beyu Caffe in Durham, NC

→T.J. Anderson is one of the leading composers of his generation. Born in 1928 Anderson received a Ph.D in Composition from the University of Iowa. After serving as Chairman of the Department of Music at Tufts University for eight years, Thomas Jefferson Anderson became Austin Fletcher Professor of Music and in 1990 became Austin Fletcher Professor of Music Emeritus. He now lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where he devotes full time to writing music.

→A Self-Described "Queer Black Trouble Maker" Alexis Pauline Gumbs holds a Ph.D. from Duke University and is the founder of Broken Beautiful Press. Gumbs is also editor of the blog Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Mind.


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Left of Black is a weekly Webcast hosted by Mark Anthony Neal and produced in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University.

The Color Purple: On Location in North Carolina

On Location: The Color Purple

The State of Things
w/ Frank Stasio
WUNC-FM

Director Steven Spielberg took one look at Anson County, North Carolina and decided it was the perfect setting for the film adaptation of Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Color Purple.” That was in 1985. Twenty-five years later, the little purple flowers that were planted by Spielberg’s production team still bloom in Anson County and the film that catapulted the careers of lead actresses Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey remains significant for its beautiful cinematography, powerful performances and controversial depictions of African-American life.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the film, “The Color Purple,” host Frank Stasio talks to a panel of guests about the movie’s production, its connection to Walker’s written narrative, and how it challenges audiences with complex themes of race, family, gender and sexuality. Joining the conversation is Lu Ellen Huntley, an associate professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and a member of the family that owned the Anson County farm where the movie was filmed; Michael Connor, theater coordinator at Livingstone College who appears in the film; Charlene Regester, associate professor of African and Afro-American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of “African American Actresses: The Struggle for Visibility, 1900-1960”; L. Lamar Wilson, an English PhD student and Composition Teaching Fellow at UNC-Chapel Hill; and Karla FC Holloway, James B. Duke Professor of English and a professor of law at Duke University.

Listen HERE

Why All the Silly Devil Talk Should be Taken Seriously

The selective nature of these vitriolic assertions reflects social anxieties. The perceived precarious position of Christian nationalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy requires its adherents to protect their identity by being intolerant of others.

Why All the Silly Devil Talk Should be Taken Seriously
by Ebony Utley

MC Hammer recently released a video “Better Run Run” [see below] where he insinuates that Jay-Z worships the devil.

But this is more than just regular rap beef, one artist’s put-down of another. If you know where to look, the internet is awash in conspiracy theories about pop culture icons (Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Kanye West, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Britney Spears, etc.) and their affiliations with evil. The usual suspects, a crowd of virtual vigilantes, include The Vigilant Citizen, Marco Ponce, G. Craig Lewis, and Professor Griff.

If we look at this through the lenses of race, gender, and class identity in the U.S., we begin to see that it is no accident that talented, powerful, popular, and rich African American male rappers, along with female artists, are being targeted by these claims. There is no better way to temper black men’s influence on tween and teen audiences, for example, than by claiming they are evil. (MC Hammer is himself black, but he seems happy to undermine a fellow artist by perpetuating the stereotype that successful black men are associated with the devil.)

Claims about female popular culture superstars and the occult are equally disturbing. Historically, autonomous women who threatened patriarchal power were labeled witches—women who had sex with the devil in exchange for power and therefore had to be executed. Today’s claims about female popular culture icons eerily resurrect similar arguments.

Read the Full Essay @ Religion Dispatches

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Ebony A. Utley, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of communication studies at California State University Long Beach and the author of the forthcoming book The Gangsta’s God (Praeger). She resides on the web at theutleyexperience.com

From the Capital Classic

Like This! The Photography of Sedrick Miles

The State of Things
w/ Frank Stasio
WUNC-FM

Photographer Sed Miles has spent the last three years documenting people and events in North Carolina. Miles, who has been living in Durham, is preparing to travel the world armed with a camera and not much else. But before he leaves, he will pay homage to the faces and places of the Bull City with an exhibit called “Like This.” Many of the images on display have been viewed before on Facebook, but Miles’ goal is for the members of his adopted community to log off of the Internet and experience his work in the presence of friends and neighbors. Miles joins host Frank Stasio to talk about what happens when fine art meets Facebook.

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A Living Tribute to Aretha Franklin on the Michael Eric Dyson Show

Living Tribute to Aretha Franklin
The Michael Eric Dyson Show
December 17, 2010

Today we pay tribute to none other than the Queen of Soul. While Aretha Franklin is at home, recovering from surgery and enjoying the holidays, we take the opportunity to share how much her music has been enjoyed throughout the years. Gospel singer, Detroit native, and friend to Aretha Franklin, Bebe Winans shares his opinion on what makes this renowned singer so appealing to people worldwide. At the Grammy Awards in 2008, Winans was invited to sing with Franklin, who he considers one of his own musical inspirations.

We continue our living tribute to Aretha Franklin with a comprehensive look into her role as an influential social figure. Mark Anthony Neal , professor of Black Popular Culture in the Department of African and African American Studies at Duke University, and Daphne Brooks, director of Undergraduate Studies in the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University, discuss Franklin as a pivotal figure who bridged issues of politics, gender, race, and spiritual expression within African-American culture.

Finally, Rev. Jesse Jackson joins us to talk about Aretha Franklin’s support of the Civil Rights Movement, her ability to master different genres of music, and their own personal relationship. The civil rights activist, ordained Baptist minister, and former Democratic presidential candidate discusses how Aretha Franklin’s music has translated the soul of Black America to a larger audience.

Listen HERE