Journalists are paid to be more connected and tuned in than the average person. A paradox of the modern news business is that, whether by accident or design, journalists are a highly cloistered bunch.

In the interests of objectivity, we have put ourselves at a remove from the communities in which we live--choosing instead to work the phones and computers from cubicles in newsrooms, and to head out to the streets when we have information to gather. There are many exceptions to this. But in my experience, this is how it is in most newsrooms.

At a distance, our audience becomes an abstraction. We unwittingly design our coverage for our fellow editors and reporters, not for an audience whose unmet information needs we should know intimately and seek to fill.

Today, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski received a strong message from Congress: Do whatever it takes to protect the Internet and put the FCC's authority over Internet providers like Comcast and AT&T back on firm legal ground.

While campaigning for the presidency, Barack Obama promised he would “take a backseat to no one in my commitment to Net Neutrality.”

Well, it appears the president is now content not only to take a backseat, but willing to hand the keys over to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and let him drive the entire Obama broadband agenda off a cliff.

Co-authored by Amalia Deloney and Steven Renderos.