The Big Lie isn't called the Big Lie for nothing. It's put before the public by organizations with comfy-sounding names, repeated endlessly in ads and columns and blog posts and tweets by groups and politicians -- many of whom receive support from those the Big Lie favors. Here's the current case in point: The government wants to takeover/control/regulate the Internet.
Who was responsible for this? Start with Americans for Prosperity. It's hard to quibble with a name for a group like "Americans for Prosperity." After all, who doesn't want Americans to be prosperous? Therefore, it's somewhat curious that a group that purports to have our well-being at heart is taking on the one institution that has been the greatest creator of wealth we have ever seen -- the Internet.
To be fair, the group is itself fairly prosperous. It announced the other day that it will spend the equivalent of a small public-interest group's budget, $1.4 million, to buy TV ads in Pennsylvania, Hawaii, the Washington, D.C. area and on national cable. But then AFP has all the right connections - big-time Republican lobbyist Grover Norquist, lots of conservative and corporate funding from the Koch family, a sister relationship with former House Majority Leader Dick Armey's Freedom Works and of course support from AT&T. Yes, the former Citizens for a Sound Economy is doing pretty, pretty well financially.
Factually, however, AFP is pretty much bankrupt. As we've learned, bankruptcy loves company, so AFP is not the only one. There are many people out there who can't recognize what it is the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants to do to protect the Internet, and, more crucially, what it is that the FCC is actually doing.
The list of misbegotten souls includes many prominent conservative commentators. As well as includes the top Republicans in the House, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio and Eric Cantor of Virginia, the top Republican on the Communications Subcommittee, who wrote to the FCC protesting reclassification. Rep. Cliff Stearns of Florida has introduced legislation to stop the reclassification, and other Commerce Committee Republicans who voiced their opposition at a hearing on Thursday.
Undoubtedly some conservative Democrats will be added to the list of the misinformed in the coming weeks as the forces which want to smack down the FCC spread even more of their money around town and impress legislators, in Washington and around the country, in order to spread what are essentially unfounded and inaccurate characterizations about what the FCC is doing. Even now, AT&T is working Capitol Hill searching for signatures from rural Blue Dog members and minority members from the Congressional Black Caucus. They signed a letter last year opposing Net Neutrality as well.
The secret to the Big Lie, of course, is that if you repeat it sufficient times people will be accustomed to it and take it for truth. It will develop a ring of "truthiness," to use the Stephen Colbert formulation.
In this case, the Big Lie is that the FCC wants to "regulate the Internet." Sound familiar? Everyone is singing from the same sheet. The AFP's plea is to "Help Stop Washington's Takeover of the Internet." Glenn Beck talks about the FCC taking over every aspect of the Internet. The Wall Street Journal said the FCC wants to "regulate the Web."
Boehner accused the FCC of a "government takeover of the Internet. Boehner and Cantor followed that up with a May 12 letter to President Obama that complained about "your administration's plan for federal regulation of the Internet. At a House subcommittee hearing May 13, Republicans complained about the "power grab" over the Internet.
This would be tiresome and silly if it weren't so serious, if there weren't some serious money behind it and if we weren't going to be subjected to this nonsense nonstop for the next few weeks, if not months.
Let's see what FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's Third Way policy to achieve a more open Internet really does. First, it gives the FCC back the jurisdiction it once had over Internet access (aka broadband) services. While some posit this action to reassert jurisdiction as a "radical" move, it has only been five years since a previous FCC gave away the firm legal authority it should have kept. The FCC has had authority over all types of services since 1934, from simple telephone lines to the most sophisticated data lines that have evolved. Internet access is no different. It is the connection between your house and the Internet. It is a simple telecommunications service connecting you from Point A to Point B. It's the kind of thing the FCC has authority over when the traffic moves slowly, and is no different if the traffic moves along a little quicker. As of right now, the FCC has no jurisdiction over high-speed Internet access (aka broadband) because of the April 6 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. The court said that the way the FCC wanted to assert its authority, through a vaguely worded part of the communications law, wasn't proper. So the FCC will go back to the authority it once had. That's not radical. It's practical and it's legal.
Second, without that authority, universal service disappears, as do lots of other broadband-related programs. Those rural legislators being targeted by AT&T might take note. Their constituents will suffer if the FCC doesn't go through with its plan -- not that logic ever had much bearing when a big-money company came to call.
Third, without that authority there would be no authority to examine and remedy consumer complaints. Remember that Comcast was throttling back one particular application being used by its customers? The FCC could take the complaint and tell Comcast to knock it off. If that same thing happened today, no one could stop Comcast from the throttling. In addition, anything the FCC wanted to do to protect consumer privacy, or in cybersecurity access by the disabled community to service would be jeopardized without proper legal authority.
Finally, the FCC could keep the telephone and cable companies from playing favorites, from making deals to slow down one Web site or service at the expense of another.
Where in there is anything about government taking over the Internet? Nowhere. Where in there is anything about regulating the Internet? Nowhere. Where in there is anything about government control over the Internet? Nowhere.
But wait. There's more. Not content with one false pretense, the phone and cable companies and their front groups want to compound the confusion by saying that if the FCC regulates/takeover/controls the Internet, then there will be "reduced broadband investment, less economic stimulation, and fewer jobs," as the letter AT&T is circulating forecast.
In other words, do it our way and nobody gets hurt. That's classic telephone company bullying, the things they have been doing for years. And it's nonsense. Start with the jobs. In 2008, AT&T said it would lay off 12,000 workers in 2009. That's smack dab in the middle of the regulatory environment AT&T wanted. Verizon, meantime, was cutting 16,000 jobs last year. It bought Alltel and started laying off workers. What does that have to do with an open Internet? Nothing.
You want economic stimulation? A free, open and creative Internet is what produces the greatest economic stimulation. And finally, investment. In days gone by, state regulators could order telephone companies to build out their networks. Cable companies some times had that requirement under franchising agreements. Now, that power doesn't exist in telephone land and rarely in cable. No one can force big companies to invest. Even the growth in network traffic can't do it. They will invest as they want to, depending on economic conditions and the readings from the entrails of slaughtered chickens. Free Press did an admirable report documenting the vagaries of telecom investment - and nothing in it shows any relationship to regulation. Verizon capped its FIOS residential fiber build-out at half of its customer base (about 18 million homes), just because it wanted to. No regulatory pressure was needed.
Fred Wilson, one of the country's premier venture capitalists, supports the FCC. He wrote, "And without these rules, investors like me who invest in the 'open internet' will not be able to invest anymore. So you can choose between telcos saying they won't be able to invest under one set of rules vs VCs who say they won't be able to invest under another set of rules. But if you look at history, you can see that telcos have invested very heavily in their networks while under the threat of net neutrality regulation or even in instances when they were under direct net neutrality regulation. The argument is specious and their actions have show that."
However, there is a dirty secret lurking here that Boehner and Cantor and Beck and Norquist and all the others don't want you to know. There are people who support government taking over the Internet. Who? Start with Tom Tauke, Verizon's chief lobbyist.
And then there's Stearns, the Republican lawmaker who faithfully defends big industry. In his bill, Stearns specifically gives the FCC the authority to regulate "service providers, application providers, and content providers."
Let's hear the screams from AFP, Beck, AT&T and the rest now.
The silence is golden.
Follow Art Brodsky on Twitter: www.twitter.com/artbrodsky
The bent seems to be: Insuring that Yesterday's Winners Continue to Win
That is, as in TAARP, Health Care and other programs, Obama will spend the Treasury trying to keep the Estblishment companies firming in control, and to prevent new technology, upstarts of small business from taking over.
You are right to say that it's not a "Government takeover'. Far from it. Under Obama, Government is too weak to take over, but strong enough to steal tax money and regulate innovations and small business to keep them out of the game. At the same time, he's pumped up archaic business models and let people siphon off billions of tax money via these hulks.
Under and Obama Internet, the 10 top providers would be given subsidies to "help them" push their content through, and small content shops would pay a "Internet Insurance Fee" -- which would also go to the top providers.
That is Obamaworld. Land of the Dinosaur.
The people have traditionally relied on journalists to expose the truth but there are no true investigative reporters/journalists any more. The corporatocracy has seen to that. Thank you for this article and efforts to clarify this doublespeak used by the other side.
while corporate american wants to censor the internet and the republican/conservatives couldnt care less.
there is no difference between the chineese government censoring the internet and corporations censoring the internet unless you are conservative/republican where the first is bad and the latter is good.
"when the truth is found to be lies"
jefferson airplane
First the internet replaced talk radio
as the cesspool of misinformation
now it is Fox News
It comes down to money and the network operators have enjoyed a five year run of healthy profits. They see any type of regulation of broadband as cutting into their profits.You couple that with -- broadband ubiquity, inexpensive broadband for the underserved, 100 Mbp/s (downstream) - 50Mbp/s (upstream) and a possible decrease in ARPU -- network operators suddenly see a decrease in profits.
"But if you look at history, you can see that telcos have invested very heavily in their networks while under the threat of net neutrality regulation or even in instances when they were under direct net neutrality regulation"
When Fred Wilson says "direct net neutrality regulation", are we to assume he's referring to the practice of regulating the internet? If so, I'd say he has found something in there about regulating the internet.
The author's argument is that the FCC regulating the internet is a great big lie, but he makes his argument by pointing out all the potential regulations: "The FCC could take the complaint and tell Comcast to knock it off";"the FCC could keep the telephone and cable companies from playing favorites, from making deals to slow down one Web site or service at the expense of another".
I don't see how the FCC could do these things without regulating the internet.
If you're in favor of FCC regulations, fine. Admit it and state your case, maybe you could change a few minds. But don't just pretend that regulating is somehow not regulating. That's insulting.
Phone service is "regulated" as a communication service, but those regulations apply to those providing the service, rather than to your use of it. They don't determine who you can call or what you can say during a call.
Cable TV is regulated as an information service. Your provider determines what channels you get, whether they're transmitted in HD, how much you pay for them and whether you'll pay more for some than others.
Under Bush, internet service was reclassified from a communications service to an information service, and it was out of this that the Comcast case - only recently decided by the circuit court - arose. Prior to that, "net neutrality" is what we had. It was under previous FCC regulation that the 'net developed into the entity we know today. The purpose of reversing the Bush-era reclassification is to restore and thus preserve that.
You can call that "internet regulation" if you want, but any "control" such regulation imposes is upon the service providers (Comcast, for example) rather than the service user (you). It's popular to mistrust "government" and "regulation;" put 'em together and it's a double whammy. But in this case, I do, because it was under just such government regulation that the 'net developed as it has.
That's where I get confused and wonder about the fire under the smoke. Why the Third Way? Just reclassify it back to the way it was... or do the corporates not like that idea either?
Do you really want AT&T and Comcast telling you which websites you can visit and which ones you can't?
I must give brevity a try one of these days.
They will only understand it when the damage has been done, they see it, and it's too late.
I expect the actual persons who run those corps expect to far away from the scene when the baloney hits the fan--or expect fall out to be outside their individual lifetimes...
And don't give a rat one way or the other.
Yes, there are.