The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

July 2021 brings us things to celebrate, things to denigrate, and things to absolutely deplore. On the good side, we have come to see that high-speed broadband has become an essential component of modern-day infrastructure. The ambitious broadband proposals of the Biden Administration have rightly gained strong public support, not just in one party, but both. We are also witnessing the reinvigoration of public agencies to protect the public interest, something Biden made clear in his Executive Order on competition. However, many of our most important institutions still stand in the way of needed progress. The ever-increasing dominance of consolidated and often monopolistic businesses has thwarted the kind of robust competition that an open, dynamic, and opportunity-creating economy demands. In government, the filibuster is a gag rule every bit as insidious as those John Quincy Adams spent years protesting when he went to Congress after being President.

Ugliness pervades in our rapidly deteriorating judiciary, as the increasing partisanship that bedevils too much of our court system threatens to stop needed change in its tracks. The sad state of our news and information infrastructure also fails to provide us with the facts and information citizens must have if we are to perpetuate self-government. If we are to have democracy, we must have media democracy. We need citizens—you and me—to take up this cause and organize to make sure elected officials at all levels understand that we are demanding a news and information system that serves the needs of successful self-government. We now have an opportunity to advance this goal. I hope I am right that the clouds are parting instead of gathering.

[Michael Copps served as a commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission from May 2001 to December 2011 and was the FCC's Acting Chairman from January to June 2009. In 2012, former Commissioner Copps joined Common Cause to lead its Media and Democracy Reform Initiative. Common Cause is a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy organization]