from: Broadband Reports [1]

Bells Using Minority, Disabled Groups For Telecom Propaganda?

Bruce Kushnick pens a piece for Nieman Watchdog [2] 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 [3], or think tanks they've paid to produce public relations disguised [4] 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 [5] praising the FCC's recent partisan vote [6] 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 [7] on NAD's website was co-written by Verizon, and AT&T and Verizon are the top contributors [8] (pdf) to the organization.

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