In the 1980s, Justine Bateman appeared on the TV sitcom “Family Ties,” perhaps best known for the character Michael J. Fox portrayed, the young free market adherent Alex Keaton.  We know from her appearance on “Family Ties” that Ms. Bateman can read her lines, and that skill was on display again today at the Senate Commerce Committee’s hearing on “The Future of the Internet.”  But beyond reading her lines well, what did the former “Mallory Keaton” have to say?  Well, a good deal that would have driven her brother Alex nuts.

In her testimony, Ms. Bateman implied that broadband providers are attempting to constrict access to the Internet.  She offered no evidence to support this assertion, and since broadband providers are in the business of trying to earn a return on their investments, the market would discipline any provider that did so.  As Adam Smith noted in The Wealth of Nations, "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest."

Next, Ms. Bateman sites the Book of Genesis to allege that broadband providers are somehow conspiring.  With all due respect to Ms. Bateman, I don’t recall an extensive discussion of corporate interests in the Good Book.  What I do recall is a pretty well-developed discussion of how human beings are created in the image of God and endowed with both rationality and responsibility. Because we have rationality and free will, we can choose between various competing products and services, including in the broadband marketplace.   

Alex Keaton would have gotten both of these points, and it’s too bad Ms. Bateman doesn’t.  Skilled reading of one's lines is nice, but her presentation would have been a whole lot more compelling if she had spent more of the ‘80s listening to her "brother."

I want to share a letter I sent earlier today to Mrs. Roberta Combs, the president of the Christian Coalition of America. A representative from Mrs. Combs' organization is scheduled to appear Tuesday at the House Judiciary Antitrust Task Force hearing on "'Net Neutrality" and Free Speech.

While the Christian Coalition supports net neutrality/Internet regulation, I think it's critical to consider all of the possible and likely ramifications of government mandates in this area. In that respect, the letter speaks for itself.

I am sincerely hoping that groups such as the Christian Coalition of America recognize the outstanding work the wireless industry is doing to provide parents with useful tools to control  Internet access on their families' wireless devices, as well as the steps carriers take to protect their customers from unwanted and unsolicited material such as pornography and spam, and acknowledge the negative practical implications of ill-advised net neutrality mandates.