Hillary Clinton's Bad Telecommunications Plan

If you ever hear Sen. Clinton describe her telecommunications plan, you'll surely hear the "private-public partnership" buzz words. But you probably won't hear much about this. Basically, her broadband policy is modeled after a really poor lobbyist-driven plan from Kentucky.

If you're concerned about all the really poor journalism we've been seeing lately, and the growing influence of singular figures in the area of journalism, you should also be worried about the potential for even more media consolidation in the next administration (particularly if McCain is elected). Ever since the 1996 Telecommunications Act (signed into law by a certain other President), we've seen a growing trend in this direction. I should point out that Sen. Clinton's rhetoric and record in this area has been good, but there is also an enormous conflict of interest on the horizon. She's received a whole lot of contributions from telecommunications lobbyists such as Jamie Gorelick and Thomas Donilon. Not to mention the fact that she has received more donations from the telecommunications sector than any other member of Congress.

The regular readers of this blog probably already know where my sympathies lie, but I'd like to say once again that Obama's technology plan (available here) is really good - and it's the only one with the Lawrence Lessig seal of approval.

UPDATE: She also missed the telecom immunity vote.

UPDATE II: In other news, Newscorps looks like it's about to purchase Newsday.