Intellectual Property Law

Money, Politics & Net Neutrality: Money Might Lose

By Cynthia Brumfield

I just emerged from watching the Clinton-Obama debate in Ohio to find this remarkable article in Portfolio. Clearly spurred by an item posted on the Free Press blog, the article claims that Comcast hired folks off the street to stock the room at the FCC's hearing at Harvard yesterday, thereby denying the ordinary public, many of whom presumably would have opposed Comcast's arguments, entrance to the room. In the words of David Isenberg, Comcast engaged in a "denial of citizen" attack.

There's even a great photo of some grubby-looking men asleep in their seats, oblivious to the goings-on. Karl at Broadband Reports says that some of these faux attendees even cheered for Comcast's David Cohen. (For what it's worth, I listened to the first half of the hearings on audio webcast and heard no audible cheering.)

Comcast admits to Portfolio that it hired line placeholders to ensure seats for area employees that wanted to attend the hearing. The line placeholders, it seems, either chose to occupy the seats or were told to sit down until the employees showed up.

The Portfolio article implies that this is a form of astroturfing. But I can tell you right now that I don't think Comcast intended to stock the room with phony supporters. Here's what Comcast did: it paid people to stand in line for its employees. Comcast did this because it had the money to do this and that's what companies with enough extra money do.

As the Portfolio piece acknowledges "such tactics are not unheard of at congressional hearings in Washington, D.C." That's an understatement. If you've ever tried to get into any important hearing involving any industry, you know that line placeholders (and seatholders) are big business in Washington, DC, often charging $150 or more per person to show up at the Capitol at the crack of dawn.

The article then goes on to say "Unlike Comcast, Free Press did not pay anyone to stand in line." That's because Free Press doesn't have the dosh to dole out on lineholders and even if it did, it doesn't have dozens of local employees angling to watch the big show. Free Press turned this comparative cash disadvantage into a PR coup in its fight for net neutrality.

But my point is not that Comcast is innocent but that money doesn't always buy influence or shoo away detractors. It clearly didn't in this case because look at how poorly this incident backfired on Comcast, which wasn't even intentionally trying to stock the hearing room with sock puppets. Believe me, if it had been Comcast's intent to fill the room with phonies, the hired personnel would have been polished students from Boston-area universities or out-of-work actors and not camouflage-wearing snoozers who haven't shaved for days.

Barack Obama said tonight, as he has steadfastly maintained all along, that he wants to get rid of special interest influence in Washington. By that he means deep-pocketed corporate lobbying influence over laws, regulations and policy. If this situation is any indication, when it comes to net neutrality, Obama's job might be just a little easier than anticipated.

Full post as published by IP Democracy on February 26, 2008 (boomark / email).