After enduring a vitriolic and homophobic smear campaign from right-wing media outlets during a 16-month lobbying battle — with little public defense from Democratic leadership — career-long consumer rights advocate and veteran telecom lawyer Gigi Sohn withdrew her nomination to the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday. "When I accepted his nomination over sixteen months ago, I could not have imagined that legions of cable and media industry lobbyists, their bought-and-paid-for surrogates, and dark money political groups with bottomless pockets would distort my over 30-year history as a consumer advocate into an absurd caricature of blatant lies," Sohn said in a statement Tuesday. "Chris Lewis, CEO of open-internet advocacy group Public Knowledge, said the American public "should be outraged