While much of the tech industry and blogosphere is pondering who President-elect Barack Obama might appoint as the nation’s first Chief Technology Officer–Eric Schmidt? Jeff Bezos? Larry Lessig?–a bunch of heavy-hitting public interest groups in Washington and a couple of civic-minded techies out in Seattle have each launched promising interventions in the discussion.
All through the primary season, media and political pundits have enjoyed playing Six Degrees of Indignation with Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. But the editor of the conservative Web site RedState may have come up with the most tech-headline-friendly pseudo-scandal yet: Lessig-Google-fabulous-lip-syncing-Jesusgate. The site, which is a conservative stalwart that regularly features guest posts from Republican Senators, is urging its supporters to phone the Senate Commerce Committee, where Google is currently advocating network neutrality legislation, and “tell the committee it is abhorrent to have Larry Lessig parroting Google’s call for open networks while Google censors and denigrates Christians.”
Now we know why none of the major carriers showed up for Thursday’s open FCC meeting at Stanford University: Who wants to take on Larry Lessig, the lion of Net neutrality, in his own den?
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