Hillary Clinton's Lobbyist Driven Telecom Plans

Excuse me for a second while I delve into something substantive.  I've written about Obama's transformative proposals on media and contrasted them to Hillary Clinton's 'Connect America' plan to expand broadband access, which is based on a private-public partnership model called Connect Kentucky.  Well, it turns out that Connect Kentucky is basically a fraudulent front group funded by government grants set up by telecom interests to advance their legislatve agenda and lie about internet access.  And what Clinton wants to do is spread it nationwide.

Connect Kentucky's own Andrew McNeill came onto our blog during our legislation 2.0 experiment to discuss his organization's achievements.

And, if I may say so myself, the results have been impressive. Currently 94% of Kentucky households have access to broadband internet service - up from only 60% two years ago.

Art Brodsky has the story debunking this from sources in Kentucky.

Connect's claim that more than 90 percent of the state has access to broadband has been met with a great deal of skepticism. "It's a joke," one knowledgeable source said, echoing what others also believe.

Sources with knowledge of the program said there were a myriad of problems. Connect Kentucky's results were overstated by a methodology that determined everyone within a 2.5-mile radius from a telephone company facility capable of supplying Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) service was indeed capable of getting the service. However, that assumption was not always true, the source said.

There are other weaknesses. Carriers aren't required to submit any information, and information considered proprietary can be withheld.

And Kentucky has fallen behind other states in terms of broadband.

Kentucky ranked 40th in broadband deployment, dropping three places from 2002, according to ITIF. The state in 2007 also ranked 44th in high-tech jobs, 46th in scientists and engineers as a percentage of the workforce.

Connect Kentucky also uses government funds to lobby aggressively for anti-consumer legislation, and is spreading to a bunch of different states as well as making its way into Clinton's technology plan.  Currently, Dick Durbin is pushing to expand Connect Kentucky nationwide, probably because his former telecom policy aide is lobbying for Verizon.

I've been skeptical of both Connect Kentucky and Hillary Clinton's telecom plans for some time.  Art Brodsky has shown that the reality is much worse than I had imagined.  Hopefully Senator Clinton will get rid of the telecom lobbyist inspired dreck writing the plans in her shop.  There's room for Clinton to maneuver away from Connect Kentucky, but her plan still doesn't contain a commitment that her FCC will uphold net neutrality provisions.  Clinton's media and internet proposals may allow the destruction of the internet.

Follow Matt Stoller on Twitter: www.twitter.com/matthewstoller

Comments

[NoFactsJustTruth]

I think you blew it at the end, Matt, by drawing a conclusion that this is some sort of singular item in her 'corporate skeleton closet', while it's likely just the tip of the iceberg. Hillary IS the ONLY candidate in the race that has spoken in defense of lobbyists, and therefore indirectly - the 'practice' itself, though it's a form of legalized bribery that's corrupting OUR legislatures. It SHOULD tell EVERY voter 'something' though, that Hillary beat ALL the republicants at their own 'corporate fund-raising' game in this election. Not that I've ever heard Obama say that he'd like to outlaw lobbying.
In the first or second Democratic Presidential debate, Hillary directly defended lobbying and referred to lobbyists as, "...real Americans", as if Jack Abramoff and his ilk EVER have ANY concern for OUR country or it's citizens ...either before OR after they've received 'their cut' of a corporation or industry's influence$. No, it's not ALL lobbyists, but enough.

The 'one-party' neoCON/republicrats have seemingly 'played' the electorate, once again.
Just how is a more subtle version of the same behavior ANY sort of REAL 'change' for OUR country?

[milo9]

Because of class hegemony in broadcast media, the loss of the Internet would be catastrophic. The Internet, the keep, the last bastion of free expression and communication between free people. You know they're gonna take a run at it. They too can feel the potential. Sometimes you can see the future, the ruling class aint gonna leave it alone. Best believe it.

[philistine]

Thanks for this information. The telecom companies were paid billions by OUR tax dollars for internet services which never materialized. We need to dump the corporate nanny state that has materialized over the past decades.

[Jeff Prior]

If Connect Kentucky has been determined to be a non-profit organization by the IRS (which their web site claims), then if they used government grants to lobby, they would lose their tax-exempt status in a heartbeat, essentially ruining the credibility of the organization. How is this possible? And if it is, why not file a formal complaint with the IRS yourself? In general they're a bunch of hacks, but they still take violations such as this quite seriously.

[Heyman]

Interesting. The telecoms are supposedly in deep do-do for letting the NSA spy on us. And to key top Democrats are in bed with the criminals.
WE, need to fix our system.

[January]

So where's the "fraud"? You identify those making the claims you selectively cite, but identify no one with the complaints. Not 96%? Then tell us exactly how much, because even 85% would not be much of a slight and certaintly not anywhere close to "fraud."

Your word selection is very revealing. To key this information around Clinton is such a blatant attempt at a gross political smear, it stinks.

[longislandlol]

Everyone needs to keep a watchful eye on everyone else...

[ErnestineBass]

How long will we have access to the internet? How long?

[DoorsOfMyFace]

“There's room for Clinton to maneuver away from Connect Kentucky, but her plan still doesn't contain a commitment that her FCC will uphold net neutrality provisions. Clinton's media and internet proposals may allow the destruction of the internet.”

Not hardly, or, you wish ... What’s more likely to happen is that her supporters will be here shortly, posting that it is in fact, actually a good idea, and that any negatives are your fault.