|
As the Director of the White House Office of Telecommunications Policy from 1970 to 1974 (under Richard Nixon), Whitehead was a sometimes controversial figure, for instance threatening the public television system. "Tom walked a fine line when they wanted in many cases to use the power levers of the White House to manipulate or control the output of the media," said his then-assistant, and now CEO of C-Span, Brian Lamb. However, "the most important thing Tom did was to direct the president's policy on domestic satellite communications," Lamb said. "That was the trigger that led to the diminution of power of the three networks and AT&T, allowing for the creation of new cable television channels and low-cost long-distance telephone systems." Whitehead's idea, called "Open Skies", became official policy at the Federal Communications Commission, and allowed "Cable-TV" channels to thrive without the censorship and regulations that broadcast channels had to follow. That set the stage for deregulation of the telephone network and the development of cellular telephone systems, but also led directly to the government's hands-off approach to the Internet, reflected by the FCC's August 1st action supporting net neutrality. Whitehead died July 23 from prostate cancer. He was 69.
From This is True for 27 July 2008
Suggestions for further reading:
Virtual Freedom: Net Neutrality and Free Speech in the Internet Age (Stanford...
by Dawn Nunziato
Amazon Price: $20.45
Customer Review: Corporations control one's window to the rest of the world. "Virtual Freedom: Net Neutrality and Free Speech in the Internet Age" discusses net neutrality and the threats to it, and why readers should care. Criticizing the recent changes that have th...
The Objective Standard: Winter 2008-2009, Vol. 3, No. 4
by Craig Biddle, John David Lewis, Raymond C. Niles, Gus Van Horn, Brian P. Simpson, Gena Gorlin, David Harriman, Eric Daniels
Amazon Price:
Technical, Commercial and Regulatory Challenges of QoS: An Internet Service M...
by XiPeng Xiao
Amazon Price: $50.36
Customer Review: On my recent trip to Paris, I have this book accompanied me. It's an excellent book for killing the long flight hours. It keeps me interested while at the same time delivers a very decent education on Internet QOS from technical, commercial and regul...
Net Neutrality or Net Neutering: Should Broadband Internet Services Be Regulated
Amazon Price: $67.00
Customer Review: The first and only book to focus on the issue at hand, this volume is a compilation of six relevant articles totaling 225 pages of work. The style and format remains strictly academic throughout each paper. The writing gets fairly dense in the area...
Net Neutrality: Towards a Co-Regulatory Solution
by Christopher T. Marsden
Amazon Price: $95.00
Newsfeed display by CaRP |
About the HUs
About This is True
Subscribe Free
to This is True
Prev: Last lecturer Randy Pausch
Next: Second half Lou Teicher
Complete Name List
|
