Michael Hiltzik: Big business musters more lies to smear a Biden nominee because she would do her job

Riding high after killing off President Biden's nomination of a pro-labor regulator for a key post at the Department of Labor, big business has been sharpening its knives for a noted consumer advocate nominated to join the Federal Communications Commission.

The target this time is Gigi Sohn, whose credentials as a critic of the monopoly power of big telecommunications companies and a defender of the public interest are unassailable. So the telecom industry and big business in general have chosen to smear her with misrepresentations and outright lies.

So far they've succeeded in hobbling Sohn's progress toward confirmation. That's placed a whole raft of telecom reforms on hold, because without her confirmation, the FCC is stuck with a 2-2 split between Republicans and Democrats.

The campaign against Sohn has falsely painted her as a foe of diversity in telecommunications and an advocate of suppressing conservative viewpoints.

The truth is that Sohn has long been a supporter of diversity — demographically and ideologically — in fact, the conservative information outlets Newsmax and One America News Network have issued endorsements of Sohn.

Newsmax commentator in November that although he and Sohn hold diametrically opposing political views, "I trust Gigi to get it right when it comes