( CNN ) -- If we learned that the government was planning to limit our First Amendment rights , we 'd be outraged . After all , our right to be heard is fundamental to our democracy . Well , our free speech rights are under assault -- not from the government but from corporations seeking to control the flow of information in America . If that scares you as much as it scares me , then you need to care about net neutrality . `` Net neutrality '' sounds arcane , but it 's fundamental to free speech . The internet today is an open marketplace . If you have a product , you can sell it . If you have an opinion , you can blog about it . If you have an idea , you can share it with the world . And no matter who you are -- a corporation selling a new widget , a senator making a political argument or just a Minnesotan sharing a funny cat video -- you have equal access to that marketplace . An e-mail from your mom comes in just as fast as a bill notification from your bank . You 're reading this op-ed online ; it 'll load just as fast as a blog post criticizing it . That 's what we mean by net neutrality . But telecommunications companies want to be able to set up a special high-speed lane just for the corporations that can pay for it . You wo n't know why the internet retail behemoth loads faster than the mom-and-pop shop , but after a while you may get frustrated and do all of your shopping at the faster site . Maybe the gatekeepers will discriminate based on who pays them more . Maybe they will discriminate based on whose political point of view conforms to their bottom line . We do n't have to speculate . We can look to the history of the media gatekeepers for examples . Back in the 1990s , Congress rescinded rules that prevented television networks from owning their own programming . Network executives swore in congressional hearings that they would n't give their own programming preferred access to the airwaves . They vowed access to the airwaves would be determined only by the quality of the shows . I was working at NBC back then , and I did n't buy that line one bit . Sure enough , within a couple of years , NBC was the largest supplier of its own prime-time programming . To take advantage of this new paradigm , Disney bought ABC , Viacom ( the parent company of Paramount ) bought CBS and NBC merged with Universal . And since these conglomerates owned both the pipes through which Americans received information ( in this case , TV networks ) and the information itself ( in this case , TV shows ) , they developed a monopoly over what you could watch . Today , if you 're an independent producer , it 's nearly impossible to get a show on the air unless the network owns at least a piece of it . Now Comcast , the nation 's largest cable provider , and NBC/Universal want to merge . This new behemoth would be able to charge other cable carriers more for NBC , MSNBC , CNBC , Bravo and the 35 other cable networks it will own in whole or in part . This means that other carriers wo n't be able to afford as many choices -- and it means that your cable bill will go up . Comcast is also the nation 's largest home internet service provider . And as more and more of our television is provided through the internet , other internet giants such as Verizon and AT & T will have to look toward merging with CBS/Viacom or ABC/Disney . We 'll end up with a few megacorporations in control of the flow of information -- not just on TV , but now online as well . From my seat on the Judiciary Committee , I plan to do everything I can to stop these mergers or at least put rigorous restrictions on them . But if this trend toward media consolidation continues , the free and open internet will be a thing of the past unless we write the principle of net neutrality into law right now . This is n't a liberal or conservative issue . Everyone has a stake in protecting the First Amendment . And it is n't even strictly a political issue . The internet 's freedom and openness has made it a hotbed for innovations that change our lives . It 's been an incredible engine of job creation . The internet was developed at taxpayer expense to benefit the public interest . If we let corporations prioritize some content over others , we 'll lose what makes it so valuable to our economy , our democracy and our daily lives . Net neutrality may sound like a technical issue , but it 's the key to preserving the internet as we know it -- and it 's the most important First Amendment issue of our time . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Sen. Al Franken .
Al Franken : Trend of media consolidation will mean end of free and open internet . Mergers such as Comcast-NBC/Universal would control information flow , senator warns . Far from `` neutral , '' gatekeepers could discriminate on political views , who pays more , he says . Score: 6