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from: Broadband Reports

Bells Using Minority, Disabled Groups For Telecom Propaganda?

Bruce Kushnick pens a piece for Nieman Watchdog exploring how AT&T and Verizon are manipulating public opinion by "co-opting" (read: paying) legitimate minority, disability, elderly and low-income groups into supporting positions that are frequently not in their members' best interests. This, of course, is in addition to their use of consumer groups they've made up completely, or think tanks they've paid to produce public relations disguised as objective economic analysis. Collectively, it creates a very loud "sound wall" of consumer support that actually doesn't exist.

Example: The National Association For the Deaf (NAD) recently issued a press release praising the FCC's recent partisan vote on video franchise reform, proclaiming "it matters a lot that broadband networks and their new interactive applications are widely available everywhere in America." However, a primary goal of the telco's "franchise reform" lobbying push is to eliminate build out requirements, which increases their ROI, but ultimately means fewer people actually get service. The telecom primer on NAD's website was co-written by Verizon, and AT&T and Verizon are the top contributors (pdf) to the organization.

A fair question to ask: Are such groups serving their members or their donors?