New face of FCC draws praise from PTC

With the retirement of conservative Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai, Joe Biden will be appointing what is expected to be a liberal replacement on the five-person board. The name being floated, Jessica Roswenworcel (pictured at right), is indeed a liberal who will not please conservatives, says Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council.

“I have been fortunate to know Jessica Rosenworcel for – it's been over 15 years,” he says. “She sticks to her principles, and a lot of conservative friends are going to be unhappy with some of her left-leaning principles.”

Rosenworcel, an attorney with experience in communications law, is now the current acting chairwoman after Biden announced her as his pick last week. Her work with the FCC dates back to the 1990s, before she worked in the Senate. She returned to the FCC in 2012 as a commissioner. 

A liberal news article at Vice.com praising Rosenworcel says she supports “net neutrality” and has been tough on telecom companies for collecting user information and selling it to third parties.

An NBC News story credited Rosenworcel for coining the phrase "homework gap" in 2014 over the issue of broadband access in rural areas. 

Last summer, Rosenworcel vowed to work on the “homework gap” because the COVID-19 pandemic has only highlighted the problem of students attempting remote school work without reliable Internet connections. 

Beyond those topics, what pleases Winter and PTC is that Rosenworcel is a parent who has “fought the battle” over shielding young children from explicit content.

She is a mother of two according to her official FCC biography.

“She is very empathetic,” Winter advises, “when it comes to concern parents across America share about the explicit content that's reaching their children and targeting their children.”

Regarding the authority and reach of the FCC, Winter says it will be interesting to watch the federal agency react to conservative-based media at the same time the “cancel culture” goes after those media outlets for holding a biblical worldview.

“Something,” Winter adds, “some liberals find more indecent than graphic violent and sexuality.”

According to the Vice article, Rosenworcel currently has her "hands tied" at the FCC with a current 2-2 "gridlock" on the commission. That will change, the article said, when a third Democratic-picked commissioner is appointed and gives the commission a 3-2 majority.