D.C.: Law Prof Tells Carr Not to Become 'Rosenworcel of the Right'

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Carr: Incoming FCC Chairman Brendan Carr should avoid the mistakes of his predecessor Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, and stick to "bread-and-butter issues at the core of the FCC’s mission," said Daniel Lyons, professor of law at Boston College Law School. Lyons, in a blog yesterday for the American Enterprise Institute, said Republican “Carr should focus on important issues core to the FCC’s basic operations. This must include restoration of the agency’s spectrum auction authority,” Lyons said. “This core telecommunications issue is a fight worth expending precious agency political capital.” Lyons added that Carr should embrace the model established by Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, “whose leadership was one of the bright spots of the first Trump administration." (Carr was a Commissioner under Pai and his key ally.) Lyons described Rosenworcel’s tenure as “a microcosm of the Biden administration as a whole: a voter mandate for a moderate return to normalcy was repurposed to further a progressive agenda.” Lyons urged Carr not to do the same but from the other side of the political spectrum. "It would be a mistake to become the Rosenworcel of the right, for example by pursuing a rulemaking to limit the scope of Section 230 protections for interactive computer services," Lyons said. In recent media appearances since being named Chairman on Nov. 17 by President-elect Trump, Carr has said he wants to combat censorship of political speech by Big Tech, hold broadcasters to their public interest obligations, and strengthen the U.S. space economy driven by low Earth orbit satellite Internet providers like Elon Musk's Starlink. He's also called for advancing national security interests and supporting law enforcement. In House testimony in September, Carr stressed the importance of spectrum policy. "Maintaining and extending U.S. leadership in wireless has been one of my top priorities since I joined the Commission in 2017. Getting our spectrum policies right translates directly into bringing Americans across the digital divide, spurring innovation, creating jobs, and growing our economy," he said. Unfortunately, the Biden-Harris Administration has failed to show the leadership necessary on the spectrum front." Rosenworcel, Lyons said, had “the least consequential term as Chair in modern FCC history” (quoting New Street Research’s Blair Levin) because she “expended significant political capital on controversial progressive initiatives at the fringe of the agency’s authority.” Lyons urged Carr “to resist the temptation to lead the FCC as a happy warrior in America’s broader culture wars.”