The real history of the Internet

Al Tompkins gave some publicity to this last week, but you really should watch it.

It's video of former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt speaking at the Columbia Business School explaining all the government actions taken to favor the Internet, including the decision that it, not broadcasting, should become the nation's common medium:

• "Stole" revenue from the phone network by giving Internet users and service providers free access to it.
• Declared the Internet to be a local service, thus avoiding the 3-cent-per-minute tariff for traffic across state lines.
• Decided online purchases should be tax free.
• Delayed HDTV
• Decided broadcasting "had become a threat to democracy."
  

And he says the government is contracting broadcasting spectrum to favor broadband.

Hundt isn't hurling some conservative broadside at this. He's explaining how he was deep in the thicket of it.