Whatever the Atlantic's national correspondent Mr. James Fallows calls his Atlantic cover story: "Google: Inside the company's daring plan to save the news (and itself)," it can't be journalism.

It was one of the most vacuous 12-page puff pieces I have ever read. Like Jeff Jarvis described: "It doesn’t break a single new nugget of news." It was the literary equivalent of a puppy jumping up incessantly to lick the face of the person in closest proximity. 

How ironic is it that a journalist, that made a point of telling the reader that he taught journalism for several years, wrote the functional equivalent of Google PR brochure extolling all the good Google has done for journalism/newspapers -- with no journalistic critical thinking or balance.   

It is hard to fathom that in twelve pages there were:

The Achilles heel of the FCC's announced "Third Way Legal Approach" for regulating the Internet is that it is simply not credible.

Incredible claim #1: The third way "does not involve regulating the Internet."

Kudos to Link Hoewing of Verizon Policy Blog for his excellent post systematically eviscerating New America's Foundation's fact-challenged attempt to argue that the U.S. is falling behind on broadband.

Facts are powerful and that's why net neutrality and Title II supporters like New America Foundation and their FreePress/Public Knowledge allies avoid facts like the plague.

The facts are overwhelmingly on the side that the U.S. is a world broadband leader.

The FCC is vastly understating the systemic risk involved in the FCC's radical "third way" regulatory surgery to the Internet, the communications sector and the economy.

• The FCC's proposed "third way" is an elaborate public relations facade that disguises huge problems and fatal conceptual/practical flaws that will become painfully obvious over time.
• The FCC's proposal is long on politics and soothing rhetoric, but short on real world practicality or legitimacy; it predictably will ultimately collapse under its own weight, complexity and hubris -- unfortunately leaving exceptional carnage in its wake.
• Simply, this proposal is too inherently contradictory and mind-numbingly complex, and too big not to fail.
• This analysis will explain why it is a disaster waiting to happen; it's not a matter of if, but when the "third way" will collapse on itself.

I.  Why this "third way" is a disaster waiting to happen:

The best way to understand what is going on here is to think of the Internet as a brain and the FCC's "third way" proposal as brain surgery to fundamentally rewire how the Internet brain operates at its most basic level.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 5, 2010                                                                                           

Contact:  Scott Cleland

703-217-2407

New evidence suggests Google blatantly misled public investors about its own assessment of the antitrust risk involved in Google acquiring AdMob.

On Google's webpage on the AdMob acquisition, in the Q&A section, Google said at the time of the acquisition:   

• Question: "Do you have any concerns about regulatory approval?"
  • Answer: "We don't see any regulatory concerns with this deal..."
• (At the time, Precursorblog posted that Google was clearly misleading people about the antitrust risk the deal faced.)

Now we learn from a Bloomberg/Business Week story:

• "Google CEO Eric Schmidt was so intent on buying AdMob that two people with knowledge of the deal say he agreed to pay a "kill fee" of around $700 million if the deal failed to close for some reason, such as an antitrust motion from the Justice Dept." 

It is important to put this $700m AdMob deal "kill fee" in perspective.

Google's core search advertising monopoly is understated substantially by many for several reasons.

1. Most cite second best source: Media reports tend to report the most frequent and publicized ComScore 65.1% retail market shares for Google in the U.S., not the more accurate and comprehensive Hitwise 70% retail market shares in the U.S. that the DOJ/FTC rely upon, (because Hitwise's sample size is much bigger than ComScore's.)

2.  Most don't cite total share: Media reports almost never use Google's total market share because they almost always miss or forget to add in Google's wholesale share of searches to its retail share of searches.

"The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has indicated he wants to keep broadband services deregulated" reports Cecilia Kang of the Washington Post.

• If accurate, this is outstanding news.

  Keeping broadband deregulated is in the public interest because it:

Investors understandably have focused first on whether or not the FCC will upend the broadband Internet sector by deeming broadband a Title II common carrier service for the first time, and second whether or not the FCC actually has the legal/constitutional  authority to do so.

• However, as a result of that political and legal focus, what has been almost completely ignored is the potential multi-billion dollar impact of such an FCC decision, that by definition, would make all currently unregulated and un-metered Internet traffic bits, regulated and metered "telecommunications" tele-bits for the first time. 

Simply, deeming broadband Title II legally could compel bit metering and bit payments in the U.S. for the first time.

A common tactic of net neutrality proponents is to assert their desired outcome repeatedly in hopes that it becomes conventional wisdom. Now the Open Internet Coalition asserts that Title II for broadband would be a "solid legal foundation" for the FCC, while FreePress asserts broadband Title II would provide the FCC a "sounder legal basis" for its broadband agenda. 

• Fortunately, under the rule-of-law, legal authority simply cannot be asserted or deemed "solid" or "sound" by political acclamation, it ultimately must be proven and affirmed as solid and sound by a full court process (in the absence of Congress passing a new law.)

Surely the FCC understands that the courts ultimately will decide if any legal analysis defending Title II broadband is solid/sound, especially given: