On Wednesday night, the Daily Show revisited Senator Ted Stevens’ speech on Net Neutrality to demonstrate what the Internet would look like without this guiding principle.

Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman uses several envelopes or “packets” to illustrate how information travels across a neutral Internet. He then describes a world without Net Neutrality.

Here’s Hodgman’s exchange with show host Jon Stewart. Watch it and then call your senator today:

John Hodgman: The point is with Net Neutrality all these packets, whether they come from a big company or just a single citizen, are treated in the exact same way.

Jon Stewart: So what’s the debate? That actually seems quite fair.

Hodgman: Yes… Almost too fair. It’s as though the richer companies get no advantage at all. That’s why the big telecom and cable corporations are lobbying to create a special class of Internet service where, for example, this packet from Google and this one from Amazon get through very easily. But this packet from #@%!!TimeWarner.org somehow gets routed a little differently (Hodgman tears up an envelope representing the last packet and tosses it to the side).

Stewart: So that packet will not get through?

Hodgman: Oh no, it’ll get through. It’s just that they’ll travel on a second tier of the Internet, which, ironically, will be a series of tubes.

Later Hodgman says that if Net Neutrality fails we should all get ready “for the excitement of the information super-tube.”

Check out the video at YouTube.

Then watch the Daily Show’s earlier send-up of Senator Stevens’ speech. To learn where your senator stands on Net Neutrality, visit our Senate Map. And call your senator today.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 20th, 2006 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.-->