. ♪ >> tonight on "the communicators," we speak with gordon crovitz on why he feels washington is a dangerone for innovation. >> if you go back to earlier

peter: gordon crovitz, what do you write about in your wall street journal:? gordon: i try my best to support the "wall street journal" position in the areas of technology and particularly around the internet and innovation. peter: how did you get that assignment? gordon: i have been with the "wall street journal" for many years. i spent quite some time overseeing the digital businesses of the journal. i consider myself maybe the oldest possible digital native. i oversaw businesses based on what were then called electronic publishing, even before the internet, in the 1990's. i lived in a time before the internet before technology policy was a at encouraging innovation back in the 80's and 90's and before government was heavily involved in regulating communications telephones, other technologies, the internet was different in the 1990's. it was liberating, permissionle ss, there was very little government regulation, and we are all beneficiaries of that. my column tries to identify areas where we may be backsliding or not making the most of this extraordinary op

gordon crovitz one of your favorite targets in your columns is icann.hat's your take on the administration of the internet? >> guest: all right. so let's step back a little bit. this is really part of the same theme of the internet being an extraordinary innovation and one that has been largely self-regulated. what happened in the 1990s when the internet first became open for commercial use it had previously really been for academic scientists, the military during the clinton administration, it was opened up for commercial use and the issue arose who's going to keep -- to insure the integrity of the underlying plumbing of the internet? if somebody goes to c-span.org, how will they be sure that they end up at c-span and not somewhere else? and there was a strong view that the internet should reflect american values of free speech and open access and innovation. at that time in the 1990s the contract to oversee the plumbing of the internet was handled by and continues to be handled by the u.s. commerce department. in that way the u.s. is a backstop. it pr

first up, the community indicators with gordon crovitz then jeb bush outlines his priorities for reducing government spending, reforming veterans affairs and improving the economy. later we hear about presidential candidates' disclose shower's the federal elections commission. and from the cato institute a discussion on the rise of synthetic or designer drugs. >> host: gordon crovitz, what too you write about in your "wall street journal" column? sunny try to support the newspaper's position on free people and free markets in the 'ers of technology and particularly around the internet and innovation. >> host: how did you get that assignment. >> guest: i've been with "the wall street journal" for many years, publisher of "the wall street journal." i spent quite some time overseeing the digital businesses of the journal. i consider myself in fact maybe the oldest possible digital native. i oversaw businesses that were based on what we then called electronic publishing, even before the internet, in the 1990s. so i lived in a time before the internet before technology poll policy was aimed as

. >> host: gordon crovitz, what do you write about in your "wall street journal" column? >> guest: i support the "wall street journal"'s position in favor of free people and free markets in the areas of technology and in particular around the internet and innovation. >> host: how did you get that assignment? >> guest: i've been at "the wall st

. ♪ >> tonight on "the communicators," we speak with gordon crovitz on why he feels washington is a dangere for innovation. >> if you go back to earlier technology like railroads and the mob bell telephone monopoly, those were regulated as common carriers, regulators set prices, they set terms, they set rules. and we all know what happened. there was very little innovation in railroads and in trucking, and in telephones. until the role deregulated. and all of those common carriers were essentially undone by congress. when it was so clear that innovation was being suppressed and the u.s. was falling behind in its competitiveness, that was the backdrop for the bipartisan consensus in the 1990's that the internet was going to be different. this was during the clinton administration, a clear consensus, democrats and republicans, that unlike earlier technologies, the internet was going to be largely unregulated. >> tonight at 8:00 eastern on "the communicators," on c-span two. >> "washington journal," continues. host: anna palmer of politico is our guest for the next 45 minutes. she joins us to