Setting the Chicken Little ISPs Straight

[Commentary] The opponents of a truly Open Internet are spending millions of dollars to transform the debate over what should be a no-brainer regulatory finding into something analogous to dropping a hydrogen bomb. The big Internet Service Providers (ISPs) would have us believe that Title II net neutrality is regulatory strangulation, government-by-dictatorship, wholesale infringement of their First Amendment rights, and on and on, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. Listening to the rants and wails of Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T over net neutrality reminds me of Chicken Little, Henny Penny, and Ducky Lucky rushing to warn their friends of impending doom. “The sky is falling, the sky is falling,” they clucked and quacked; the world is ending. But the sky wasn’t falling; it was just a tiny acorn bouncing harmlessly off Chicken Little’s head. ‘Twas quite the ruckus they raised; it just wasn’t reality. The net neutrality decision facing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is much less dramatic than “The Sky is Falling ISP Threesome” endlessly contend.