Biden FCC Boss Rosenworcel To Step Down, Can’t Be Bothered To Express Alarm At What Comes Next

We’ve noted how Trump’s win means that Brendan Carr (R, AT&T) will now be in charge of the nation’s top telecom and media regulator. We’ve also made it very clear his tenure will involve dismantling whatever’s left of FCC broadband consumer protection, killing remaining media consolidation limits, and threatening to pull the broadcast licenses of any media companies critical of King Trump.

If you hate free speech, enjoy being ripped off by Comcast, love feckless consolidated corporate media that kisses authoritarian ass, and enjoy weird new taxes on your Netflix bill going right into AT&T’s pocket, the next four years at the FCC should be your cup of tea.

Unsurprisingly, Carr’s FCC appointment means that the existing boss, Jessica Rosenworcel, will be stepping down in January. In a statement on her departure, Rosenworcel praises her fellow staffers and the work they did getting a COVID-era broadband discount for poor people off the ground:

“I am proud to have served at the FCC alongside some of the hardest working and dedicated public servants I have ever known. Together, we accomplished seemingly impossible feats like setting up the largest broadband affordability program in history—which led to us connecting more than 23 million households to high-speed internet, connecting more than 17 million students caught in the homework gap to hotspots and other devices as learning moved online.”

In a separate statement she Congratulates Carr on his appointment:

“I want to congratulate Commissioner Carr on the announcement by the President-elect that he will serve as the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. This agency has responsibility for communications technology that is vital for everything in modern civic and commercial life. It is also fortunate to have extraordinary expertise thanks to the hardworking public servants who labor faithfully to implement the law and help build a digital future that works for everyone”

How nice.

Lacking from either statement is absolutely any acknowledgement whatsoever that the entirety of her work at the agency is about to be dismantled by a collection of authoritarians that have publicly announced their intent to destroy consumer protection, dismantle the entirety of corporate oversight and the public safety net, and weaponize the FCC to assault the press.

Now, I’m not saying that Rosenworcel should have told the Trump administration to go fuck itself on her way out the door using large fonts and animated gifs. Nor do I think it was necessary for her to even be particularly hostile (especially given the personal safety dangers female public officials face in the fashy broligarch era). Nor was it even probably necessary to mention Trump by name.

But I do think it might be nice if Democratic officials signaled the slightest fleeting acknowledgement in public facing statements that the incoming administration intends to do very obvious harm to vulnerable communities, corporate accountability, journalistic freedom, the entirety of consumer protection, and the rule of law.

Everything Rosenworcel has worked on is poised to be destroyed. That popular Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) Rosenworcel mentions in her statement, which provided a $30 discount off the broadband bills of poor people? Trump Republicans have already killed it, resulting in 23 million struggling Americans suddenly forced to pay higher prices than ever for broadband.

Rosenworcel’s efforts to restore net neutrality? Dead. Her planned inquiry into the nature of anticompetitive broadband caps? Dead. Her agency’s attempt to acknowledge racism in broadband deployment for the first time in history? Dead. Efforts to hold wireless companies accountable for spying on their users location data? Dead. Efforts to combat sleazy cable TV fees? Dead as a doornail.

All of these efforts are poised to be either dismantled by a corrupt court or at best never see enforcement by corrupt Trump officials. The entirety of your public-facing legacy as a public servant is about to be dismantled by a rotating array of some of the biggest authoritarian sycophants to ever hold public office and that’s not mentioned at all? Not even a vague and clever nod in the direction of alarm?

Now again, I appreciate that Rosenworcel wants to maintain civility as she eyes post-FCC political or professional opportunities. But the complete and total lack of any ideological alarm whatsoever in her exit statements (pretty common among Democrats at the moment) sends a very clear message to the public and press that this is all business as usual and there’s nothing to see here.

I saw the same thing by several prominent broadband and media experts when they gave quotes to the New York Times, CNN, and the Washington Post on Carr’s appointment. Lots of talk about what a “nice and qualified guy” Brendan Carr is, but very little alarm about his looming plans to take a hatchet to decades of broadband end media reform and journalistic freedom.

The second Trump term is guaranteed to set new high water marks for corruption, the assault on federal consumer protection, the erosion of media consolidation limits, and the use of government power to stifle journalism, education, female reproductive rights, civil rights, and anything else this collection of bobbleheaded authoritarian shitgibbons view as a threat to unlimited wealth and power.

The very least Democratic officials can do is simply acknowledge the extensive harms barreling down on the nation’s most vulnerable. But even that seems to consistently be a bridge too far. This era’s going to be uniquely ugly, requiring a new breed of leadership, journalism, and activism that isn’t afraid to, at the very, very least, acknowledge objective reality.