Comments on: Are the FCC Workshops Fair? http://broadbandpolitics.com/2009/08/are-the-fcc-workshops-fair/ On the theory and practice of networking Tue, 27 Jul 2010 05:28:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Brett Glass http://broadbandpolitics.com/2009/08/are-the-fcc-workshops-fair/comment-page-1/#comment-428872 Brett Glass Sat, 15 Aug 2009 22:41:52 +0000 http://bennett.com/blog/?p=5714#comment-428872 The Media and Democracy Coalition's letter says, "We urge the FCC to explain how five of the workshops taking place this week could exclude public interest groups and consumer rights advocates." The reason why, of course, is that these groups would have little to bring to the party. At best, these groups tend to repeat the same mantras over and over again ("Big Companies Bad!" "Make Everything Free!") without addressing the actual nuts and bolts of how to solve problems. And at worst, they're shills ("astroturf" groups) which pretend to represent consumers while really representing the agendas of corporations. (Sascha Meinrath's New America Foundation falls into this category. Its chairman is Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who channels millions of Googlebucks to the organization each year. Likewise, lobbying groups such as Free Press, Media Access Project, and Public Knowledge are puppets on Google's strings.) My small, private company -- which puts service ahead of profit and whose interests are aligned with those of its customers -- is a far better representative of consumer interests than any of the abovementioned groups. The Media and Democracy Coalition’s letter says, “We urge the FCC to explain how five of the workshops taking place this week could exclude public interest groups and consumer rights advocates.”

The reason why, of course, is that these groups would have little to bring to the party. At best, these groups tend to repeat the same mantras over and over again (“Big Companies Bad!” “Make Everything Free!”) without addressing the actual nuts and bolts of how to solve problems. And at worst, they’re shills (“astroturf” groups) which pretend to represent consumers while really representing the agendas of corporations. (Sascha Meinrath’s New America Foundation falls into this category. Its chairman is Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who channels millions of Googlebucks to the organization each year. Likewise, lobbying groups such as Free Press, Media Access Project, and Public Knowledge are puppets on Google’s strings.)

My small, private company — which puts service ahead of profit and whose interests are aligned with those of its customers — is a far better representative of consumer interests than any of the abovementioned groups.

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