On Tuesday of this week I posted a piece to the Huffington Post which outlined the concerns I had over the FCC’s announcement that it wants to change the way the competitive broadband marketplace is regulated (so-called “reclassification”).  The FCC’s approach will bring market uncertainty – uncertainty which has the potential to chill the investment that is desperately needed to get broadband to all Americans. 

As my piece in the Huffington Post cited, there has been no shortage of analyst opinion which supports this view.  And earlier this week, 74 members of the House Democratic caucus weighed in to express their concerns. 

Unfortunately a group on the political fringe – Free Press – has resorted to distortions and hyperbole in response to the concerns I and others have registered over Title 2 reclassification.  Even in this town, political hyperbole has to be held to some kind of reality standard, especially when it concerns something as important as getting broadband into the hands of all Americans.

Josh Silver at Free Press failed the reality standard in his Huffington Post blog, attacking me and dozens of current members of Congress. We are simply pointing out that the Internet economy has flourished under the FCC’s light touch approach to regulating broadband – an approach that everyone understands began under the Clinton Administration, not the Bush Administration.  Unfortunately Josh Silver and Free Press choose to make up their own facts to serve their ends.  They are putting the success of the FCC’s historical approach at risk by trying to bring political pressure on the FCC to cave in to their wishes by enacting dangerous and unprecedented regulations on broadband.

I’m a Democrat who served 10 years in Congress. So I’m used to the give and take of politics and love a good debate.  But Free Press refuses to debate the facts.  They’d rather claim that myself, the DLC and 74 members of the Democratic caucus are held under the spell of Glenn Beck.  I’d be laughing if the stakes for Americans weren’t so serious.

Here’s the joke:  While Free Press parades as the guardians of Internet freedom, they are pushing policies that would deny the Internet to those who need it most.  They do not look out for the interests of everyday Americans who are concerned about jobs and the economy.  They represent a small cadre of “internet elites” who are already connected.  They could care less that it will take tens of billions of dollars in private investment to get every American online.  They launch ridiculous – actually, childish -- attacks on anyone who even dares to challenge their falsehoods. 

Unlike the people at Free Press, I talk to Americans of every walk of life every day.  Real people are still worried about jobs and our nation’s recovery.  They still believe this is the greatest country on earth and that opportunity abounds.  I believe that too.  But I think we need to continue the policies which have worked well – which have created one of the most innovative, dynamic industries in the history of the world.  The jobs and opportunity that the internet will continue to bring are threatened by the policies championed by Free Press.  Jobs and opportunity won’t come about if investors are scared away.  That was the point I was trying to make – and will continue to make.  I won’t back down from these guys.

Harold Ford, Jr. is an Honorary Co-Chair of Broadband for America