Home » Net Neutrality » Recent Articles:

PsychoTalk — Michele Bachmann: “Net Neutrality is Essentially Censorship of the Internet”

Bachmann

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota), appeared on Sean Hannity’s show last night to go way over the top, telling Fox News viewers the Obama Administration was supporting Net Neutrality as part of an effort to censor the Internet.

Oh sure, that’s all they have left now, is they use pejorative terms, hateful terms, against those who are carrying the message. So whether they’re attacking conservative talk radio, or conservative TV, or whether it’s Internet sites — I mean, let’s face it, what’s the Obama administration doing? They’re advocating Net Neutrality, which is essentially censorship of the Internet.

This is the Obama administration advocating censorship of the Internet. Why? They want to silence the voices that are opposing them.

This isn’t the first time this talking point has been used.  Glenn Beck fancies Net Neutrality in much the same world view, helped along by the likes of astroturfers like Americans for Prosperity’s Phil Kerpen.  Kerpen’s group, among others, receives corporate money to drag down consumer protections that would stop Internet providers from delivering less service to you at an ever-increasing price. If it takes suckering Fox News viewers into believing Net Neutrality is an Obama plot to shut down freedom of speech on the Internet, so be it.

Of course, Bachmann’s tirade is the opposite of reality.  She is either clueless about the concept, or has cynically bought a ticket on the PsychoTalk Express, delivering fear-based, fictional talking points about online freedom.  Net Neutrality preserves freedom of speech on the Internet, even for misinformed folks like Michele Bachmann, in at least two ways:

  1. Your Internet Provider cannot shut down your website if they oppose your views;
  2. A provider must assure access to your website unencumbered by speed throttles or other impediments they say can be removed… for the right price.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Fox News Michele Bachmann Net Neutrality 4-20-10.flv[/flv]

Rep. Michele Bachmann’s views on Net Neutrality were aired on Sean Hannity’s show last night.  (1 minute)

Comcast Creating New Cable Network to Parrot Its Corporate Agenda, Elect Friends, and Make You Pay for It

Rightnetwork's logo, which is actually kind of creepy, would be more true to itself if that "R" was replaced with a "C" for Comcast -- its true progenitor.

When your corporate message has to pass through a media filter, your talking points can get lost along the way.  Comcast has decided to cut out the middleman by launching a new right-wing, pro-corporate cable network that seeks to co-opt the tea party movement for its own agenda.

Rightnetwork, launching this summer, seeks to reach “Americans who are looking for content that reflects and reinforces their perspective and worldview,” according to its promotional material.  Featured prominently in the network’s promotional materials are tea party events and those that promote a pro-corporate agenda.  The network’s on-air talent is embedded in the national tea party tour that has been making its way across the country, which gives you a sense of where the network’s early emphasis will lie.

Comcast sheds any pretense of staying above the political fray and jumps in with both feet to deliver its business agenda to viewers.

“The lineup focuses on entertainment with Pro-America, Pro-Business, Pro-Military sensibilities — compelling content that inspires action, invites a response, and influences the national conversation,” says the network’s promotional “lookbook.”

“We’re creating a welcome place for millions and millions of Americans who’ve been looking for an entertainment network and media channel that reflects their point-of-view. Rightnetwork will be the perfect platform to entertain, inform and connect with the American majority about what’s right in the world,” says Ed Snider, chairman of Comcast-Spectacor.

Reviewing promotional clips for the network’s planned shows, something else is readily apparent — wedding a corporate agenda with a political movement in hopes of currying favor with those that might return the favor one day.

<

p style=”text-align: center;”>

One of the network’s most prominent planned shows is “Running,” which is little more than a political infomercial for Republican/tea party candidates.  One of the first targets Comcast-Spectacor has in mind is Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California).  Waxman is characterized as “infesting” his Congressional seat in the program.

Waxman, coincidentally, is also a big political foe of Comcast, favoring Net Neutrality and deeply concerned about media concentration issues, something the proposed Comcast-NBC merger would exacerbate.  Rightnetwork has effectively provided millions of dollars in free publicity to Ari David, Waxman’s opponent.  Should David win the seat, he will have Comcast to thank for helping make it possible.

Running‘s featured candidates:

  • Ari David, Republican running against Henry Waxman who writes: “Capitalism is under attack from the progressive left.”
  • Chris Simcox, Republican who ran against John McCain in the primary, who he called: “a sinister element, a progressive socialist masquerading as the leader and conscience of the Reagan Republican Party.”  Wants to promote free enterprise in a “post-McCain era.”
  • Clint Didier, a Republican running against Sen. Patty Murray in Washington.  He uses his Rightnetwork coverage as a campaign ad on his website.
  • Donna Campbell, a Republican running for a Texas congressional seat on the platform of deregulating business.
  • Republican Jim Gibbons, a vice president of Wells-Fargo Bank who is running for Congress in Iowa on a platform of deregulating business, even after the already-deregulated banking industry caused the Great Recession.
  • Republican John Dennis, running against Nancy Pelosi in California, who showcased an anti-Net Neutrality ruling on his Facebook page with a fan base whose views were best summed up by one writer: “If a private internet service provider wants to restrict certain types of content or opinions moving across their wires, then that should be their prerogative.”  That shrugging off of censorship is ironic coming from a supporter of the “pro-Liberty Republican” candidate.

Anyone think there is a “yes” vote for Net Neutrality or oversight of the cable industry and big media mergers among this crowd?

This isn’t Comcast’s first effort to curry favor with conservatives, who seem most likely to support the cable company’s political agenda.  Last September, Comcast and AT&T sponsored a U.S. Chamber of Commerce forum keynoted by Fox News personality Glenn Beck.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, itself implicated in notorious astroturfing efforts, is a strong opponent of Net Neutrality and broadband oversight.

The worst part is saved for last.  Who pays for this pro-corporate hackery?  You do, as part of your monthly cable bill, whether you want the corporate point of view on your basic cable lineup or not.

That’s just one more reason why the Comcast-NBC merger is such a bad idea.  It places enormous resources at the disposal of a company that has no qualms about using them to advance its own political agenda at your expense.

Garbage from the National Review Regarding Net Neutrality and Broadband Regulation Refuted

Phillip "The only New Deal my cable company brought to the table was a $150 monthly broadband bill for exactly the same level of service I had when paying $50" Dampier

Joe, a regular Stop the Cap! reader noticed the National Review this morning published another one of their “in the pocket of big telecom” editorials proclaiming Net Neutrality is “anti-consumer.”  Right into the first paragraph, it was clear the editors either fundamentally misunderstand the reality of today’s broadband industry or honestly didn’t care as long as it suited their business-friendly agenda.

Readers, you need not go along with the charade.  While the publishers of National Review can probably afford to buy their way around anything the phone and cable industry can dream up, you probably cannot.  What those opposed to Net Neutrality frame as “freedom from government intrusion” is in reality an attempt to keep your broadband provider from screwing around with your connection in hopes of charging you more for the same service you used to have.

Turn on your TV these days and within minutes you are likely to see several commercials from your local cable, satellite, or telecommunications company trying to convince you that their cable, DSL, or mobile broadband services are superior to those of their competitors. That’s because the market for broadband service is robustly competitive: If service providers didn’t advertise, they would lose business.

Actually, most of the advertising I see on my television comes from free ad inserts Time Warner Cable hands themselves during ad breaks on national cable channels.  My local phone company, Frontier Communications, hasn’t advertised on television for quite awhile.  The mobile broadband advertising I see fights over coverage and who has the coolest new device.  They aren’t advertising on price because they almost all charge exactly the same $60 for 5 GB of usage per month.

None of this represents “robust competition” when one of the players on the wired side is absent from the airwaves and the wireless folks have convenient cartel-like pricing for wireless broadband.

They would also lose business if they did something that made their customers unhappy, such as slowing or blocking the delivery of popular content over the Internet. Or they might gain customers if they created a model that, for a fee, guaranteed uninterrupted high-speed access to certain services, such as telemedicine, video conferencing, or some other use of the Internet we have yet to imagine. This competition directs broadband toward its most efficient uses. It is pro-consumer in that it allows for the proliferation of choices and pressures companies to offer a variety of pricing options.

Of course, the editors who wrote this did not have to fight back a 300 percent rate increase with an Internet Overcharging scheme that would have limited broadband access in at least five cities to start.  Let’s test their theory by asking a few questions.  First, did anyone ask for this kind of pricing to begin with?  Answer: No.  Second, did the plan make customers unhappy?  Answer: Emphatically yes.  Third, upon hearing from customers that they did not want this kind of pricing, did they discard the plan?  Answer: Not on your life.  Fourth, did it take two members of Congress to drive the company to finally pull back their plan?  Answer: You bet.

Now ask the same types of questions about slowing down your web connection to make room for the neighbor up the street willing to pay more to get more while you enjoy less for the same price you’ve always paid.

Lesson learned: when you effectively have a duopoly or monopoly in your market, you don’t have to listen to customers — they have to listen to you.  Indeed, even where competition exists, there is every indication the competitors would themselves increase prices or limit service to rake in additional revenue.  That happens routinely even in more competitive industries like the airlines — something you realize when you try and check bags and are asked for a credit card.  In Canadian broadband, foreshadowing a non-Net Neutral USA, when one player limits usage and throttles connections, the competitor more often than not joins in.

The other fallacy raised in this useless editorial is that Net Neutrality somehow bars companies from offering all of those wonderful innovative Internet applications.  It’s a common talking point straight out of the industry’s playbook.  Nothing precludes the broadband industry from expanding and improving their networks to offer all of these services.  Under Net Neutrality, they simply wouldn’t be allowed to do it on the backs of their other Internet customers, whose connections are automatically impeded to make room for that “innovation.”  The saddest part is that the only innovation at work here is price-gouging customers instead of upgrading networks.

It would be a huge mistake to impose by fiat a single business model on the carrier side of the Internet.

Tell that to AT&T and Verizon who have exactly the same pricing in their business model for mobile broadband service.  Is it a huge mistake for them?

Specifically, they want the government to prohibit broadband providers (such as Comcast) from discriminating against content providers (such as Google) by, for instance, charging them different rates for different levels of network service. They argue that, in the absence of such regulation, broadband providers can act as self-appointed censors, slowing down or blocking content they don’t like. Keep in mind that in no instance has this actually happened. So far, broadband providers have acted only to slow down noisome bandwidth hogs in order to manage traffic and ensure a high quality of service for the majority of their customers. Net-neutrality proponents counter that other customers — those unhappy about the slowdowns — lack meaningful options; that is, that the market for broadband service is not sufficiently competitive.

It is -shocking- the government would want to make sure broadband providers don’t block or discriminate against other people’s content.  We can’t have that!

The National Review needs to consider studying up on history.  The cable industry, for example, is notorious for blocking competitor access to its content.  To this day, the industry is fighting to keep the cable networks they own off competitors’ lineups.  The same company that provides your broadband service wants to make sure their telephone competitor cannot show a regional sports channel they own.  At least one broadband provider in the United States tried to block competing Voice Over IP phone companies from being used on their broadband service.  The same “blocking” mentality popped up in Canada where a broadband provider purposely blocked a website critical of that company.  Want access to cable programming online but don’t have a cable-TV package?  Good luck.  TV Everywhere projects are specifically designed to block non-cable TV customers from accessing that programming online.

National Review‘s afterthought admission that providers like Comcast were diddling with customers’ Internet speeds is waved away as somehow the fault of bandwidth piggies, another common meme in the talking points packet provided by the broadband industry.  Never mind the company had effectively spied on customers to determine what they were doing with their connections, that they first denied reports they were throttling, effectively throttled everyone — piggies or not — and then quickly stopped when the FCC protested.  If Comcast wasn’t doing anything wrong, why not inform customers first?  After all, the “majority of customers” would want throttling to preserve their “high quality of service,” right?

Of course they don’t, and when customers found out the company charging them good money to provide a service was also trying to systematically reduce its value with speed throttles, they howled in protest.  Who knows what online application would fall next to the throttle?

This would effectively mean applying to broadband providers the rules designed for landline telephone companies in the 1930s. We know Obama wants to emulate FDR, but this is getting ridiculous.

Oh now see how they tried to be funny with the slap against Obama and FDR?  The National Review would have been the magazine defending the railroad robber barons and utility trusts — unregulated monopolies — back during FDR’s day.  They’d be just as wrong then as they are now.  The only New Deal my cable company brought to the table was a $150 monthly broadband bill for exactly the same level of service I had when paying $50.

The current regulatory framework for broadband was constructed by Michael Powell’s Republican-majority FCC, classifying broadband as an “information service.”  It was bureaucratic incompetence because it relied on vaporware authority that a court found, to nobody’s surprise, didn’t exist.  The court does recognize the FCC’s authority to regulate “telecommunications services,” so by simply reclassifying broadband as such, the basic question of authority is solved.  The National Review pretends this will automatically mean 1930s-like regulations as applied to copper wire-phone companies, but that’s not true.  The National Review simply doesn’t want the FCC to have any authority in the first place.

But the FCC’s authority to reclassify broadband to suit its desires is also open to legal challenge. As a result, we are sure to hear louder calls for Congress to regulate the Internet or to grant the FCC the explicit authority to do so. These calls should be ignored. The Internet has thrived in the absence of homogenizing federal regulations, and this organic development should be allowed to continue so long as competition can act as a check on anti-consumer practices.

The calls to enshrine Net Neutrality, stop Internet Overcharging, and force open broadband markets and expand service all do not come in a vacuum.  They are ideas born from past provider abuses that have demanded consumer protections in response.  Who would have dreamed up Net Neutrality if AT&T’s Ed Whitacre didn’t insist Internet traffic could not use his pipes for free.  What about when the industry started toying with developing premium tiers of service that relied on slowing down the connections of their other paying customers.  Why worry about forcing markets open to additional competition?  Oh yeah, because of statements like those from Landel Hobbs (Time Warner Cable COO) who told investors Time Warner Cable could use its market position in broadband to jack up prices whenever they chose.  And they did.

The National Review‘s “hands off” attitude is the same one they’ve had towards banks, and now every American is paying for that mistake.  Let’s not repeat it.

Besides, as it stands these companies compete vigorously against one another in a way that is beneficial to consumers. If one of them makes an unpopular business decision, its customers can go elsewhere. If, however, an unelected FCC chairman dictates uniformity in the services these companies provide, then there is nowhere Americans can turn for innovations the government may have strangled in the cradle.

Where exactly do consumers in rural areas go for alternative broadband when their monopoly phone company provider limits their service or charges them confiscatory pricing?  Where do residents go when both providers limit service?

Consumers have far more power to deal with the “unelected FCC Chairman” than dealing with intransigent phone and cable companies.  Elections every few years have consequences.  There are no elections for Comcast, Verizon, Cox or AT&T.  They’re effectively Providers-for-Life in the communities they serve.

The National Review has little to fear from a broadband dark ages where innovation disappears.  Somehow, an industry that rakes in billions in revenue every year will manage to get by living under basic guidelines that require them to earn their money fairly and spend some of those profits to keep up with very profitable demand.  They’ll sue anyway, of course.  But that could buy us enough time to spur additional competitive choices in a duopolistic market for broadband, helping put to work those free market principles of fierce competition the National Review believes in.

[Article Correction 4/15/2010: The original piece laid blame for the classification of broadband as an “information service” on former FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.  In fact, the classification was made by former FCC Chairman Michael Powell, who served during the first term of the Bush Administration.  We regret the error.]

Everything New is Always a Threat to Everything Old – The Cable TV Monster

Phillip Dampier March 26, 2010 Competition, Editorial & Site News, Net Neutrality, Public Policy & Gov't, Video Comments Off on Everything New is Always a Threat to Everything Old – The Cable TV Monster

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Anti-Cable Pay TV Ad from the 70’s.flv[/flv]

I ran across this “public service announcement” about the perils of cable television coming from the over-the-air broadcasters terrified of the implications of a new concept in television delivery — coaxial cable.

Back in the 1960s and early 1970s, big lobby dollars from broadcasters kept a foot on the throat of the newly-born cable television industry, prohibiting them from showing sporting events, movies and programs offered in syndication, unless they were from local stations of course.

To allow this new competitor to gain access to lucrative programming would cost local jobs, hurt investment in television stations providing local community service, and ruin it for everyone!

Ironically, broadcasters are still using these arguments when confronting intransigent cable companies that won’t write checks to pay those “free TV stations” for the right to carry them on the cable lineup.

Whenever a new player enters the marketplace, the existing ones panic.  That’s why the National Broadband Plan, Net Neutrality, and the concept of open networks terrifies incumbent players.  It’s a whole new world — one they aren’t comfortable with — market instability and players out of their comfort zones always invoke a fear-based response, especially on Wall Street.

Forty years after the pay television monster envisioned in this advertisement, we are still watching local over-the-air broadcasters.  In fact, the only harm viewers have experienced comes from an industry that treats local TV stations like commodities, bought and sold for millions of dollars, even as many stations cut local programming and community service.  These days, it’s not uncommon to find a major local affiliate not even producing a newscast any longer.

We now face another transformation in telecommunications with the release of a national blueprint for improved broadband.  Existing players have no problem with it, as long as they define it, benefit from it and get to implement it.  But the idea of opening their networks and providing consumers with additional choice, as well as protection from meddling providers who want to monetize all-things-Internet, just cannot be entertained.  To do so would … you know, cost jobs, harm investment, and ruin it for everyone.

Much like a broken record, this rhetoric is obsolete.

Inside the Beltway Tickle Party: Karen Peltz Strauss, Telecom Industry Front Group Board Member, Gets Job At FCC

Strauss

This week Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski appointed Karen Peltz Strauss Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau Deputy Chief.

Strauss is supposed to focus on disability issues, among other things, and will help the Commission to implement the components of the National Broadband Plan that address access for people with disabilities, including leading the effort to develop a proposed Accessibility and Innovation Forum.

“The FCC has a vital role to play in empowering and protecting all consumers and ensuring they have access to world-class communications networks and technologies” said Chairman Genachowski. “I look forward to drawing on Karen’s extensive experience with telecommunications access issues to realize those goals.”

A news release from the FCC includes a brief review of her 25 years’ experience working on telecommunications access for people with disabilities.

But the agency forgot to mention Strauss also serves on the board of directors of an industry front group — the Alliance for Public Technology.  APT claims it represents the best interests of consumers, but considering who is writing the checks, that’s highly doubtful.

APT’s website suggests the group “makes policy decisions based on the potential benefit to consumers. The Board members themselves as well as APT’s member organizations serve the education, health care, social service and economic development needs of senior citizens, people with disabilities, minorities, children, low income families, rural communities, and all consumers.”

That’s true, if you, as a consumer, are for big telecom mergers like AT&T and BellSouth, which APT supported, oppose Net Neutrality, which APT feels should not be imposed on providers, liked the idea of Cingular being absorbed into AT&T’s empire of wireless, which APT also supported, and so on.

In fact, this group even praised Verizon’s willingness to invest in West Virginia:

Verizon has demonstrated a commitment to increased investment in advanced telecommunications capabilities. According to the company, Verizon invested almost $560 million in its Maryland network and $150 million in West Virginia in 2001 (2002 figures not available). Verizon added more than 31,000 miles of fiber optic cable in Maryland and 20,500 miles of fiber optic cable in West Virginia. Over 2.5 million access lines in Maryland now have access to DSL. Authorization to provide in-region long distance service in Virginia will facilitate Verizon’s capacity to build on economies of scale and scope in order to provide a high standard of service and accelerated deployment of advanced technologies to the consumers of Maryland, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia.

The only thing Verizon wants to accelerate in West Virginia is their exit.

Laughably, one of the reasons APT supports AT&T so much (besides the big checks the company writes to fund their operation) is:

With BellSouth’s entry into the Florida and Tennessee long-distance markets, AT&T began to offer 30 minutes of free long distances to its customers and inserted “thank you” messages into the time between a customer dials a number and the connection occurs. These actions demonstrate tangible benefits for consumers because of an increased number of competitors in the long distance market.

I know that makes me feel warm all over.  Who should I call first?

Wading through APT’s public policy positions unearths absolutely no surprises.  They exist to advocate for the interests of the companies that fund their operations, and that includes all the bully boys:

  • AT&T
  • CTIA
  • Embarq
  • Qwest
  • United States Telecom Association
  • Verizon

Despite this, APT writes with a straight face, “These companies give donations based on a shared vision for the ubiquitous deployment of high-speed telecommunications technology, but have no say in the governance of the association.”

Sure they don’t.  But then again, those checks would stop coming if APT began actually representing the consumers they claim to care so much about.

It’s disappointing the FCC would want someone so closely aligned with the interests of large telecommunications companies working to implement a National Broadband Plan that is supposed to represent the public interest.

It’s just another example of the Inside the Beltway Tickle Party, where lobbyists and “dollar a holler” experts flow between government jobs, privately-funded think tanks, and the private sector.  Consumers are only too aware that their best interests are not represented by employees whose loyalties change depending on what hat they wear to the office.

Search This Site:

Contributions:

Recent Comments:

Your Account:

Stop the Cap!