Music Industry Lawyer Upset That Sites Are Able To Point Out The RIAA Took Down Content

Researcher Claims His Study Is Being Misused To Pitch Broadband Stimulus

from the won't-create-jobs dept

Wed, Feb 4th 2009 7:08am — Mike Masnick

We're certainly on the record as being quite skeptical of the proposed broadband stimulus, which seems like it's mistargeted and a bit of a gift to incumbents, rather than stimulating much needed competition in the space. Of course, the Obama administration has made it clear that the short-term focus of the plan is less about dealing with the big broadband issues, and more about creating jobs.

Turns out there's a problem there too: the guy whose research the administration is using to claim that the broadband stimulus will create 300,000 jobs is now claiming that his research has been taken out of context. Shocking. It turns out that the study in question was talking about adding broadband to non-rural areas in 2005, helping to create a ton of new jobs. However, since then, plenty of broadband services have been deployed, meaning that the job creation impact is greatly diminished. And, even worse, much of the focus of the stimulus plan is on those rural communities that were excluded from the report, and which would have a much lower impact on job creation.

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Filed Under: broadband, broadband policy, jobs, stimulus

11 Comments

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Clay, 4 Feb 2009 @ 8:13am

Not creating jobs...
The stimulus isn't creating jobs, it's creating work. It's the governmental equivalent of the busy work you get when you've got a substitute teacher in high school.
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A Dan, 4 Feb 2009 @ 9:09am

Typo / question
Mike, what's the correct way to contact you about typos like "who's" in this article?
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DS, 4 Feb 2009 @ 9:38am

Re: Not creating jobs...
*clap* *clap* *clap*
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Mike (profile), 4 Feb 2009 @ 9:53am

Re: Typo / question
Commenting here works. Or you can use the feedback link found in the header and footer of every page to let us know. Thanks!
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Jim, 4 Feb 2009 @ 11:08am

Typo?
I'm not an English major and I've been wrong before... but the "whose" in the article indicates the "research the administration is using " is possessed by "the guy". The phrase "who is" or "who's" is not correct in this case.
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Dave (profile), 4 Feb 2009 @ 11:39am

War on Drugs
This happens all the time, for example, research done on drugs to justify the War on Drugs.
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A Dan, 4 Feb 2009 @ 11:40am

Re: Typo?
That's because he fixed it. It used to say "who's" in the article.
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Woody the country boy, 4 Feb 2009 @ 12:25pm

Do any of you live in rural areas?
Stop nit-picking and try living in a rural area where your choices are dial-up or satellite. You won't like it. You'll spend less time on-line, less money at retailer sites, and your business will likely not rely overly on the internet. Spare a thought for your country cousins and don't be so quick to criticise a plan that could give rural people a service that you have enjoyed for a long time.
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Feb 2009 @ 12:38pm

Re: Do any of you live in rural areas?
Yeah, I'll spare just as much thought as my country cousins spare for me when I complain about the traffic, noise, pollution of where I live and they in return say, "Tough shit city boy, you choose to live there."
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Mike (profile), 4 Feb 2009 @ 1:57pm

Re: Do any of you live in rural areas?
Stop nit-picking and try living in a rural area where your choices are dial-up or satellite. You won't like it. You'll spend less time on-line, less money at retailer sites, and your business will likely not rely overly on the internet. Spare a thought for your country cousins and don't be so quick to criticise a plan that could give rural people a service that you have enjoyed for a long time.

Living in a rural area is a choice. Because people choose to live there they have certain benefits (cleaner air, more privacy, more land, quiet) and some downsides (fewer conveniences, farther away from things, fewer services... and less broadband).

If you choose to live in rural areas why do you think the gov't needs to fix one of those things?
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didNTdriknTHEkoolaid, 4 Feb 2009 @ 11:18pm

Universal Service Fund
Universal Service Fund?!?!!?
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