Telcos Blitz Washington in Million-Dollar Campaign
May 4th, 2006 by tkarrThe cable and phone lobby is bombarding Washington with TV ads telling Congress to support their plans to seize control of the Internet. According to Jeff Chester, the industry is spending nearly $1 million a week on an ad blitz to convince elected officials to side with AT&T and Verizon — and against their constituents.
“Companies such as Qwest, Comcast, Time Warner, and AT&T want to be broadband barons,” Chester writes, “with all other content providers and users reduced to serving as merely consuming digital surfs.”
How much is the PR campaign costing? Chester replies:
Well, intrepid media consultant Gary Arlen of Arlen Communications has done the math. “About 975K is being spent on Washington-area media buying,” he told us. That sum is mostly for local broadcast TV expenditures. According to Mr. Arlen, the U.S. Telecom Association has been spending $250 K/week (and so far has run-up a six-week $1.5 million ad tab). AT&T is forking out $600K per week (for its “Choice” campaign). TV4US, a telco “Astroturf” group, is spending $75k per week for at least a four-week air time buy. The NCTA, meanwhile, has gone through at least $ 1 million nationally in a year, spending 50K a week in the DC market as Congress meets.
We need to match each telco lobbying dollar with the voice of an actual person. Let Congress know that you speak louder than industry propaganda. Contact Congress today. More than 500,000 people have already.
We’re turning the tides against “business as usual” in Washington, as Josh Silver wrote yesterday:
As predicted, the cable and telephone companies have lined up their PR henchmen and “Astroturf” campaigns in an attempt to muscle through legislation that hands them control of the Internet. But they’re now facing a formidable opposition in the form of a public that’s fed up with business as usual in the nation’s capital.
Whereas before, the big telephone companies and their hired guns were confident that Congress would simply roll over, today, no member of Congress can vote with the teleco cartel without feeling public heat.
May 4th, 2006 at 11:01 pm
Ok this might not be the right spot but I am throwing down a reality check for everyone right now. I don’t give a flying fart if your a democrat or a republican, but I am going to give you a clue what kind of stuff is going to happen if they push and pass this bill because if they do it will kill start up and small businesses. I am disabled. I have 3 types of epilepsy and because of my seizures I have convulesed so hard that I broke my back. I have an atrial fibulation (heart condition) I can’t see 4 inches in front of my face out of my left eye from an injury recieved when I had a seizure. I can go on and on about my problems caused by this. Now pictures this I am a married 24 year old with a 14 month old baby. I was on disability and I recieved $780 a month for me my wife and son to live off of besides her income. Before we where giving this oppirtunity we had several hard choices to make every day. Get my medicines, my wife and I be able to have a real meal, or make sure my son had formula baby food diapers and he was able to go see his doctor because he is what they call tounge tied his entire tounge iss completely attached to the bottom of his mouth, and he has a herniated bellybutton that leaks fluid and we have to get it froze twice a week. For all of you who believe in governement aid it isnt crap. Now picture this my wife and I were giving the chance to start htis business with a family friend who wanted to take part of her business on line. We make decent money off of our on line business no we don’t make loads, but we make enough that we don’t have to decide if I am going to get my medicine, if my wife and I are going to be able to eat, or we will be able to provide for our son. It was an easy choice our son came before us.
Now picture if the telecommunication companies get this bill passed and it makes my wife and I have to stop our internet then we have to go back to make the choices of how we live. Now I wish anyone who wants this bill to pass have to live my life before we were able to start this business then after they spend a day how we were living before be able to go and vote this bill through and then live with the fact that they have done this to not only me but also other disabled people who earn their income the same as me and be able to look in the mirror and live with t he choice they made and how on alot of people it has had more of an affect then they ever thought.