What a clusterthing Wednesday’s hearing was. “Historic,” some called it, and - sure. The CEOs of four of the biggest tech companies around, together - virtually - on Capitol Hill, testifying before the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee is historic. Sadly, armed with both hands a map, members of congress couldn’t find the gravitas. Some seem to have an obstinate misunderstanding of technology while others really wanted to talk about other things. I joked on “In a Few Minutes” earlier this week that the CEOs were appearing before the House Subcommittee on we hate you right now because it benefits us politically to do so. Turns out I wasn’t joking. This was meant to be a sort of crescendo after months and months of investigation by the subcommittee.
Participants in Student U.N. are better prepared and take their duties more seriously. Cards drawn randomly from a question deck would have given us greater insight.
Now - that was my impression from the parts I saw. I want to say I saw the last two rounds of questions, though I did catch the opening statements from the CEOs because C-SPAN reran those during a short recess taken by the committee. I thought I might go back and watch the whole thing later. Then, I didn’t.
