Fox News' Special Report falsely claimed that the public won't have a say in the upcoming Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Open Internet rule, ignoring reports that the record number of public comments on the rulemaking were overwhelmingly positive and polls that show the public greatly supports net neutrality regulations.

On February 26, the FCC will vote on a proposal that will subject Internet providers to utility-like regulation. During the February 11 edition of Special Report, host Bret Baier told his viewers that “you may have absolutely no say in the matter.”

Contrary to Baier's claim, in May 2014, the FCC requested public comments on “how best to protect and promote an open Internet” as part of the rulemaking process. While correspondent Shannon Bream did acknowledge this and mentioned that the FCC received a record 3.7 million public comments, she failed to report that the vast majority of these favored net neutrality. The Sunlight Foundation found that fewer than 1 percent of the first 800,000 public comments were opposed to net neutrality enforcement.

In fact, recent polls indicate widespread bipartisan support for net neutrality:

In a new survey, the University of Delaware's Center for Political Communication found that support for neutrality is strong and widespread -- regardless of gender, age, race and level of education. About 81 percent of Americans oppose allowing Internet providers like Comcast and Verizon to charge Web sites and services more if they want to reach customers more quickly, that is, allowing what are often called “Internet fast lanes.”

On February 4, FCC Chairman Thom Wheeler released the agency's net neutrality plan, which aims to prevent broadband providers from prioritizing or blocking content in exchange for payment. Republicans have criticized the provision that would reclassify broadband providers as public utilities under Title II of the the Federal Telecommunications Act.

Special Report highlighted this criticism, interviewing FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai, who criticized Wheeler for not releasing the final rule ahead of the FCC's vote, saying,“The very fact that we have these differing views proves my point that we should be transparent and release the plan to the public. You can read it and make up your own mind.”

Pai said in a recent press conference that the FCC's proposal would allow for more taxes and create “more litigation and less innovation.” However, experts, broadband companies, and Google say that net neutrality spurs innovation and promotes investment and competition, and Congress passed a moratorium on state and local Internet taxes in December 2014.

Also missing from the Special Report segment was any acknowledgement that one of the most vocal opponents of net neutrality is Comcast, one of the broadband carriers that stands to be regulated and one of the country's most active lobbyists. Last year, the content provider Netflix agreed to pay Comcast a premium for faster and more reliable content access for all Comcast subscribers. Under the FCC's plan, all broadband providers, including Comcast, would be barred from prioritizing certain content providers over others.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver highlighted these industry dynamics in its net neutrality segment that aired in June 2014, and was credited in driving traffic to the FCC's public commenting system: