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from: SavetheInternet

When Astroturf Calls

May 18, 2007

Companies fighting the drive to make Net Neutrality the online law of the land are back with more shady tactics designed to confuse the public over the issue.

Media Minutes reports today that people in Oregon are receiving automated telemarketing calls urging them “to call Senator Gordon Smith to oppose any congressional intervention into the Net Neutrality debate.”

from: Knox News

TV cable bill piles up lobby costs

Funds spent for and against measure total $2M each side

By TOM HUMPHREY, tomhumphrey3@aol.com
May 16, 2007

NASHVILLE - Lobbying in support of legislation to revise state cable television law has cost almost $2 million, roughly the same amount as lobbying against it, according to disclosures filed Wednesday with the Tennessee Ethics Commission.

from: Save the internet

‘Consumer’ Group Hides Verizon Link, Fails Smell Test

From SavetheInternet.com, May 9, 2007

A shadowy “consumer” group emerged from obscurity today to bleat about the dangers of Net Neutrality. And no sooner had their press release hit the PR Newswire than a chorus of industry apologists began waving it around as proof positive that Net Neutrality is a cancer on the Internet.

from: Ars Technica

Laws for sale! Astroturfing and citizen apathy on the rise

By Nate Anderson
| Published: May 08, 2007 - 12:09PM CT

from: Cleveland.com

Cable TV control at stake in Ohio
Local governments, telecom giants tangle over statewide contract

Sunday, April 22, 2007
Aaron Marshall
Plain Dealer Bureau

Columbus- Imagine your monthly TV bill dropping as video competitors fight for your business. You wear out your thumbs flipping through channels that never end, and cutting-edge technologies put you in the middle of the action on the football field. It could be a TV junkie's nirvana.

Note: TV4US is a notorious astroturf organization paid for by the telephone companies to build support for telco legislation.

from: Tampa Bay 10

Supporters of bill to create more competition for cable TV reveal plan

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Supporters of a bill that would make it easier for telephone companies to offer video services to Floridians distributed thousands of petitions in support of the plan to state lawmakers today.

from: Save the Internet

Groups Manipulated To Spread Telco Propaganda

And you thought Telco Astroturfing was bad enough.

Bruce Kushnick of Teletruth exposes the dirty ways that AT&T and Verizon manipulate public opinion by “co-opting” not-for-profit groups and aligning their leaders against Net Neutrality — even when it’s in the worst interests of their constituents.

Note: We've reported on this group in the past - but this is worth repeating.

from: Source Watch

TV4US describes itself as a coalition "advocating on behalf of American customers who deserve new choices, better service and lower costs in their television service." [1] The public interest group Common Cause called TV4US "the very definition of Astroturf: an industry-backed campaign that gives the appearance of widespread grassroots support." [2]

from: Nieman Watchdog

Verizon, AT&T and the manipulation of public opinion

COMMENTARY | April 04, 2007

Needed: Blacks, Hispanics, disabled, deaf, low-income and the elderly to support the telecoms’ positions on anti-consumer FCC rulings and legislation.

By Bruce Kushnick

from: Capital Times

Statewide cable report rapped
By Jeff Richgels
The Capital Times

A new report from a conservative think tank that backs proposed statewide cable franchising is based on false assumptions, a critic said today.

The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute's report, prepared for release today, asserts that consumers on cable's basic and expanded basic tiers could save up to $149.01 yearly on their bills if cable competition were allowed.