Astroturf Is In Season When It Comes To Telco Lobbying
from the lobbyists-in-sheeps'-clothing dept
In case you hadn't noticed, the telco/broadband industry has been pretty busy in Washington DC lately trying to impact policy in their favor. And with that, of course, comes plenty of stories about so-called consumer groups that are really backed by the incumbents. This isn't that surprising or unknown... but a new report tries to remove the astroturf and shine a light on the dirt beneath it. It's good to make more people aware that these groups don't necessarily have consumers' real best interests at hand -- but it's hardly a surprise these days. So whatever happened to real consumer interest groups? Have they all disappeared? The really sad part, though, is that politicians and policy makers should already know that these groups aren't particularly legitimate -- so why do they still listen to them and use their information as the basis for legislation?Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Astroturf
Are you really looking for an answer to that question? The answer, in case anyone is wondering, is colored green and crinkles when you put it in your wallet.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Astroturf
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Astroturf article
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Totally agree!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Totally agree!
Doubtful. If most letters get read at all, in most cases it will likely be by some low level fuctiontionary or "secretary". Only when the Democrats and Republicans start getting ovted out of office in large numbers will they start to take notice. Until "independants" and alternative parties started getting elected to office in noticable number, Washington could care less what we think.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Think about it. Lets say they charge for "download level" tiering. Another company is just going to "play the market" come along and waste competiton by being cheaper. Making the big dogs behind it suffer.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
So whatever happened to...?
So whatever happened to real consumer interest groups? Have they all disappeared?
Sure looks like it to me.
The Common Cause report, “Wolves In Sheep's Clothing”, is a pure ad hominem attack. It reads like a losing argument.
The report says that it “attempts to shine a light on some of the telecom industry's devious Astroturf campaigns, as well as their funding of think tanks for 'research' that supports the industry's agenda.” Well, read the report yourself—with a dash of critical thinking—and decide whether they've carried their self-assigned burden. I don't think they have.
Instead of addressing the evils of unregulated monopoly versus regulatory capture in the telecom context—attempting to educate and enlighten the public—Common Cause appears to have descended to childish namecalling.
Imho, someone needs to shine a bright spotlight on Common Cause, and ask the question whether they're intentionally throwing the debate in the style of the infamous Black Sox.
Something stinks here.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: So whatever happened to...?
The far left is accused of wanting a massive welfare state, but the only way to make that possible is to consolidate the mass of the wealth in the hands of a small majority.
The far right is accused of wanting to limit the mass of the wealth in the hand of a small majority, but doing such merely result in the masses having little or nothing and requiring a massive welfare state.
Different intent, same result.
The same appears to be happening in the business world now.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Instead it looks like Google might have plans to bypass dsl and cable completely by building their own WiFi networks.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]