Code/red: FCC Chairman a Total Nightmare

Note to a sitting president who once said, “I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over”: If you opt to tap a former lobbyist for the cable and wireless industries as head of the federal agency that regulates them, don’t be surprised when he balks at your call to pass tougher regulations on high-speed Internet service. The Washington Post reports that FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has been telling executives from major Internet companies that he’s not entirely on board with President Barack Obama’s plan to reclassify consumer broadband service under Title II of the Telecommunications Act, nor does he have to be, as the agency doesn’t answer to the Obama administration. Said Wheeler, “I am an independent agency.” There’s no “I” in team, Tom.

Speaking of net neutrality, Comcast* which on Monday slagged Obama for what it described as a “radical reversal” on the issue, today worries that its knee-jerk outburst may have been misunderstood. What Comcast meant when it said that Obama’s network neutrality proposal would “harm investment and innovation” was this: “Surprise! We Agree With the President’s Principles on Net Neutrality,” which conveniently is the title of this troll of a blog post from EVP David Cohen. “What is remarkable is that if you compare the President’s articulation of his vision for net neutrality as set forth in the White House talking points released yesterday afternoon, we are on the record as agreeing with every point,” Cohen writes, adding, “This is not game playing or sophistry on our part.” But of course it is. Obama wants the Internet to be reclassified under Title II of the Communications Act; Comcast does not. And while it’s true that the company already practices a number of the Open Internet rules for which Obama has been calling, it is legally obligated to do so because of conditions imposed on its purchase of NBCUniversal.

*Comcast owns NBCUniversal, which is a minority investor in Revere Digital, Re/code’s parent company.

Reuters: “At least two top-10 Yahoo shareholders are so unhappy with chief executive Marissa Mayer’s turnaround efforts that they are making a direct plea to AOL CEO Tim Armstrong to explore a merger and run the combined company.”

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong: “The cleaning lady was in here last night, and I’m like, ‘I love the smell of this table!’ She was like, ‘Um, O.K.’ac”

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is beginning to dip into the $6.3 billion the company pocketed from selling shares in the Alibaba IPO. Late Tuesday, Yahoo said it will acquire video advertising delivery platform BrightRoll. Price: $640 million in cash.

Microsoft has patched a critical vulnerability in Windows that has existed in every version of the operating system since 1995.

The current net neutrality debacle in Washington has given AT&T cause to reconsider its big fiber rollout. This according to CEO Randall Stephenson, who thinks it unwise to undertake that kind of capital expenditure under such a hazy regulatory horizon. “We can’t go out and invest that kind of money deploying fiber to 100 cities not knowing under what rules those investments will be governed,” Stephenson said. “We think it is prudent to just pause and make sure we have line of sight and understanding as to what those rules would look like.”

Punktendo.

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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.