Comcast Mobilizes 'Civil Rights' Groups Against Net Neutrality

by: Matt Stoller

Sat Mar 01, 2008 at 14:07

I blogged last week about Comcast manipulating the NAACP in Boston to push their anti-net neutrality agenda. It's a standard move from conservatives, to fund some group called, say, the Disability Council and use it to push tax cuts for oil companies. Now that their ploy in Boston failed, Comcast is moving to the open shill groups, preying upon the subtle bias of journalists, who list all groups with an ethnicity or gender in the name as a 'civil rights group'.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should allow broadband providers to manage their networks and slow "bandwidth hogs," despite concerns that such practices arbitrarily target some customers, said a coalition of seven civil rights groups.
Net neutrality rules for broadband providers would protect bandwidth hogs at the expense of other customers and civic organizations, said the coalition, which includes the National Black Chamber of Commerce, Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association, League of Rural Voters, and National Council of Women's Organizations....
That position puts the civil rights groups at odds with several consumer rights groups, including Public Knowledge and Free Press, which have called for the FCC to stop Comcast from slowing some Internet traffic. Those groups, among a coalition of consumer rights groups that filed a complaint against Comcast in November, submitted their own comments late Thursday, saying opponents of their argument have misrepresented them....
"We need some honesty in this debate," Harry Alford, president and CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement. "Content discrimination is a real threat to an open Internet, but so are bandwidth hogs -- particularly those who traffic in illegal, pirated material. Bandwidth management can be objectionable if it is aimed at censoring certain content, but it is in the consumer's interest if it is aimed at preserving bandwidth for consumers that pay for it."

Maybe I'm not paying attention, but I missed the march on Washington led by the National Black Chamber of Commerce for civil rights, and I missed the statement from the Latinos in Information Sciences and Technology Association protesting the government's abuse of civil rights over FISA.

I did however notice the National Black Chamber of Commerce's denial of global warming (funded by Exxon), it's opposition to the FDA regulating tobacco (funded by Altria), and its work to privatize Social Security because "Blacks, on average, pay far more in Social Security taxes than they can ever expect to receive in benefits."

The NBCC is one of many of these groups funded by telecom interests, in this case Comcast. It's a shame that journalists like Grant Gross of IDG News Service gives them credibility by dubbing them 'civil rights' groups. This is one of the more cynical corporate tactics in polluting our national discourse, using the funding of great brands like the NAACP to build abusive relationships and astroturf groups like the NBCC to push a corporate agenda.

It's very annoying, but it's the only card Comcast has yet to play. This company needs to be broken up, as it is a bad faith operator that should not have control over what is actually public infrastructure, internet and cable access to much of the country.

Matt Stoller :: Comcast Mobilizes 'Civil Rights' Groups Against Net Neutrality

Tags: Comcast, net neutrality, NAACP, (All Tags)

Print Friendly View Send As Email

Comcast Mobilizes 'Civil Rights' Groups Against Net Neutrality | 10 comments

Digg this .. (0.00 / 0)

here:

http://digg.com/politics/Comca...

This has to get a wider airing in light of Comcast's packing that hearing earlier this week.

by: Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle @ Sat Mar 01, 2008 at 13:19:51 PM CST

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Wow (4.00 / 3)

What does this say about the use of the race card/identity politics in terms of turning off scrutiny and the rational brain?

Obviously odious to me it's more insidious than just trying to stop net neutrality as a new low in public relations manipulation.

NoSlaves.com

The Economic Populist

by: Robert Oak @ Sat Mar 01, 2008 at 13:38:44 PM CST

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

It says exactly what you think it says (4.00 / 1)

Slap black or gender on it, and conversations end. It's this years equivalent of slapping Christian on something. It's not that we were looking not to be faith based, but instead that we wanted a different faith.

by: bruhrabbit @ Sat Mar 01, 2008 at 14:26:36 PM CST

[ Parent ]

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Chambers Of Commerce Lie, Regardless of Color (4.00 / 1)

I did however notice the National Black Chamber of Commerce's denial of global warming (funded by Exxon), it's opposition to the FDA regulating tobacco (funded by Altria), and its work to privatize Social Security because "Blacks, on average, pay far more in Social Security taxes than they can ever expect to receive in benefits."

Of course, this is absolutely false. While it's true that black's shorter life expectancy--an objective reflection of persistent racism--means fewer of them recieve retirement benefits compared to whites, Social Security benefit payments are progressive, compared to payroll taxes paid in, and since blacks make lower wages on average, this means that suriviing black seniors receive proportionately more on average than surviving whites.

Furthermore, Social Security also pays survivor and disability benefits, which blacks collect at substantially higher levels than whites do. In article published by the Black Commentator, "Bamboozled: Destruction of Social Security Would Harm Black Communities", Maya Rockeymoore, PhD writes:

Although only 12 percent of the U.S. population, African Americans are almost 18 percent of those receiving disability benefits. In addition, black children represent 23 percent of all children receiving survivor benefits.

So, once again we have demonstrable proof that whatever you hear from a Chamber of Commerce, it's usually safe to assume that the opposite is true.

by: Paul Rosenberg @ Sat Mar 01, 2008 at 15:05:54 PM CST

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Maybe, but the arguments that identity such as (0.00 / 0)

race or gender mitigates this seems to be false. That's the lesson that progressives need to understand going forward. Identity is important for protecting classes from discrimination, and not for defining people's beliefs or whether those beliefs are the correct ones. There is no short hand toward policies or voting on candidates based on identity.

by: bruhrabbit @ Sat Mar 01, 2008 at 15:32:29 PM CST

[ Parent ]

by: you @ soon

To post this comment click here:

Otherwise click cancel.

Businessmens Is Businessmens (0.00 / 0)

That's the only identity that counts when they get together to collude against the common good.

Not all businessmen do that, of course. We all chose--within constraints of course--just which identity we will identify with.

by: Paul Rosenberg @ Sat Mar 01, 2008 at 17:08:13 PM CST

[ Parent ]

my point is and I've noticed a tendency (0.00 / 0)

on the left blogs to avoid the frankness of my point- identity politics has proven the trojan horse for many of you. you want to use this sword ,b ut its biting you in the ass. there is no nice way to post this. i remember bowers writing some diary about the attractiveness of for lack of a better words of black=progressive. rather than address the inherit flaw of why such an approach is dangerous, the approach is to return to things the left understands. frame it in terms of business, etc. maybe the issue is that like religion , identity is such a powerful motivator that it can seriously distort coming up with a progressive answer to problems if the wrong peo are using it?

by: bruhrabbit @ Sat Mar 01, 2008 at 17:28:45 PM CST

[ Parent ]

Yo, Dude! (4.00 / 1)

I met my first black idiot four decades ago. This is not my problem.

At the same time, politics is all about group preferences. That, and money. So it's a just an inescapable fact. You can either be smart or be stupid about it, but you cannot escape it, any more than a particle can escape having mass.

The first identity politics was conservative identity politics. They identified themselves as the only ones who mattered. All other forms of identity politics were a reaction to that, either directly, indirectly, or both.

by: Paul Rosenberg @ Sat Mar 01, 2008 at 19:03:45 PM CST

[ Parent ]

smart about it doesn't mean pretending (0.00 / 0)

moderate candidates like Obama are progressive just because he's black. Smart about it doesn't mean calling people on what they are doing or else nothing changes. I have more at stake in the race issue than you do. I live in a low income black community. I have to live with what you think can't be changed.

by: bruhrabbit @ Sat Mar 01, 2008 at 23:07:29 PM CST

[ Parent ]

League of Rural Voters (0.00 / 0)

They aren't representing this rural voter, though it is not the first time they have failed to represent the progressive rural interests they claim strive for. Read a two part series on the League of Rural Voter's prior cooperation with big telecom: