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Comment by darkstar999 | Hacker News Reader

Obama appointed Wheeler. It's not exactly a tactic that only the current administration uses.

Many people were worried when Wheeler was appointed, but Obama told us not to worry. Later his statement would prove justified when Wheeler turned out to be a strong advocate for consumer protection at the FCC.

Wasn't Wheeler part of the cable industry at a time when cable was the scrappy upstart?

IIRC his previous job before joining the FCC was as a lawyer for Comcast.

Wheeler came from the industry, yes. But that's where the comparison ends. Not sure what you're trying to say.

Wheeler was pretty consistently pro-consumer. Pai has shown the complete opposite in each decision.

... a little more nuanced than that... Pai is pro-consumer, but believes the consumer is best-served by more competition, which he believes needs to be kickstarted. A couple of interviews with him: http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/05/05/526... https://www.recode.net/2017/5/5/15560150/transcript-fcc-chai...

Words mean nothing.

Here's a parallell: https://theintercept.com/2017/06/04/paris-accord-trump-lobby...

What matters is the effect of what you're doing.

believe his actions, not his words

Excuses for anti-consumer policies.

Ah yes, the "yeah one person has done many things that are bad, but this other person is just as bad because I am able to cherrypick a bad thing they did". As someone with no horse in the political game, this line of debate is very bad.

The problem is a general one with government agencies hiring folks other than career civil servants.

How do you find people who are highly knowledgeable about he telecom industry but who haven't on the payroll of a telecom company and don't hope to be?

I think the point is it's incredibly lopsided considering the target of the decisions, and who they appointed, and didn't.

Very true. I just think this administration is taking it to a whole new level.

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