Fox News Adopts GOP Smear Attempt On Net Neutrality, Dubbing It “Obamanet”

Written by Lis Power

Published

Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy pushed a Republican attempt to tar net neutrality when he said that it “could do to the Internet what Obamacare did to the healthcare system,” a right-wing attack widely discredited when Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) pushed the idea in November.

During the February 24 edition of Fox News' Special Report, correspondent Peter Doocy reported that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will vote on net neutrality protections for the Internet on February 26. Doocy compared the alleged lack of transparency in the FCC's proposed plans to the Affordable Care Act's passage and claimed, “some critics already calling a slowed down web Obamanet, and their fear is that these changes could do to the internet what Obamacare did to the healthcare system.”

This attack echoes right-wing media outlets and Republican lawmakers who pushed the analogy that net neutrality regulations would be like “ObamaCare for the web.” In a February 22 Wall Street Journal opinion piece, L. Gordon Crovitz dubbed net neutrality regulations “Obamanet.” But the idea behind the term gained popularity after a November tweet sent by Sen. Ted Cruz where he asserted that "'Net Neutrality' is Obamacare for the Internet."

“Net Neutrality” is Obamacare for the Internet; the Internet should not operate at the speed of government.

-- Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) November 10, 2014

Cruz was roundly criticized for his misleading attack. Tech blog Gizmodo called Cruz' tweet “disingenuous” and “dangerous.” And according to Salon, “Cruz was absurdly wrong on the substance and demonstrated an ignorance of both healthcare and tech policy.” Salon did concede however that healthcare and internet service did share some “common features”:

Healthcare and Internet service in America do share some common features - specifically, we pay a lot for both, and the product we get in return kinda sucks relative to how much we spend. Head to Europe or Asia and chances are that you'll be able to purchase faster Internet access for far less money than you'd pay here. Also, Internet connections abroad are getting faster and cheaper, while prices and speeds are pretty much staying the same in the U.S.

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