The Wall Street Journal is causing a bit of a Web stir this morning with an article reporting that Google is backing away from "net neutrality" and has approached major carriers with an eye towards fast-tracking its own content.

The piece is relevant to the Obama administration because it also seems to be suggesting that Obama himself, and his advisers, are softening their commitment to it.

The article says that some "prominent internet scholars" who have advised Obama on tech issues have "softened their views on the subject." It adds that the supposed Google move could "test Mr. Obama's professed commitment to network neutrality." And it quotes Google's head of public affairs, Richard Whitt, as saying that Obama's net neutrality plans are "much less specific than they were before."

So is there any cause for concern about Obama's position? Doesn't look like it.

First, Google is strongly condemning the piece in a blog post, attacking it as "confused." Second, the Google public affairs chief says in that same post he doesn't remember ever telling the paper that the plans are much less specific than before.

And finally, one of the scholars advising Obama on tech issues, Stanford's Lawrence Lessig," denies any shift on Obama's part in a blog post of his own.

"I've not seen anything during the Obama campaign or from the transition to indicate it has shifted its view about network neutrality at all," Lessig says.

Indeed, though there may be real disagreements at play involving Lessig himself, there doesn't appear to be any evidence of any shift on Obama's part. So this looks like it's shaping up as nothing. More when we learn it.