Bennie Thompson supports telecom industry in Net Neutrality debate
Corporate Democrats are gathering signatures on the big telecom lobbyist letter I wrote about a few days ago against net neutrality.
Representative Gene Green (D-TX) is taking the lead on the cave, standing with the lobbyists, and thus far, here are some of the Democrats who have signed on:
Greg Meeks
Loretta Sanchez
Michael McMahon
Eddie Bernice Johnson
Alcee Hastings
Tim Holden
Joe Baca
Lacy Clay
Charlie Gonzalez
Bennie Thompson
Yvette Clarke
GK Butterfield
Albio Sires
Leonard Boswell
As I wrote the other day, the letter is full of lies and misrepresentations, and basically argues for giving control of the Internet entirely to big corporations:
The letter, which I’ve obtained [pdf], contains the usual telecom lies that protecting net neutrality – a policy that is current tradition in this country and is just recently being violated by the telecom companies – would somehow cost us jobs or investment in Internet infrastructure. It then tries to convince the FCC that Internet services are more appropriate as “information services” as opposed to “telecommunications services,” which the FCC is going to classify them as.
The letter skirts the core issue – if Internet services are left classified as “information services” then the FCC has no power to protect consumers according to the recent court ruling that started this round of lobbying. Any member of Congress that signs the letter is essentially saying it’s ok to leave the Internet completely in the hands of Comcast and AT&T and the other big telecoms, with no recourse for consumers if those companies, say, decide to start blocking access to blogs that are critical of their policies.
It’s likely that the lobbyists are targeting the members of Congress who signed onto a letter last fall against net neutrality for this letter, including 72 Democrats. The full whip list from the last letter is available here. After significant netroots pressure, some of the past signers dropped off that last letter.
FireDogLake
5/21/10
