First Google vehemently denied the Wall Street Journal's article about an alleged change of stance concerning Net Neutrality. Now Barack Obama is making a forceful statement of his own in reference to what was said about his policies concerning the freedom of the Internet from corporate dominance. It looks like the Journal is letting their irresponsible Editorial section up and over into the front.
From TPM:
Ouch. Multiple smackdowns for the Journal today. Maybe they should do a little more research when trying to claim that Net Neutrality is under attack from left-leaning Google and the President-Elect. The backlash over the WSJ reporting is fantastic (except for the writer and editors) because it allows Net Neutrality advocates to get reaffirming statements from the big names that have spoken up for the important issue in the past such as the next President.Obama transition spokesperson Nick Shapiro told us moments ago that Obama's position -- strong support for net neutrality -- hasn't changed.
As we noted below, The Wall Street Journal set off a bit of a Web explosion today by reporting that support for net neutrality is eroding and asserting that that Google is supposedly turning against the idea and has approached major cable and phone companies with a secret proposal to "fast track" its content.
The Journal story (which was strongly disputed by Google and many others) also suggests, based on scant evidence, that Obama's position may have softened. But the paper didn't appear to contact the Obama team for any comment.
So we did. Asked if the Obama camp had shifted its stance in any way on net neutrality or softened its commitment to it, Shapiro answered: "No." Even limited public declarations (such as this one) from the Obama transition team about the incoming administration's priorities have been few and far between.
|