[lbo-talk] telecom astroturf

[Gar Lipow]

On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 6:12 AM, Sean Andrews<cultstud76 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Not to deny Bill's point, but IIRC, this coalition was actually first
> built around opposition to the 2003 changes to FCC regulations.  In
> this sense, it was the threat of the corporate control of media
> outlets that supposedly brought them all together. I don't have my
> copy of McChesney's /The Problem of the Media/ handy, but he gives an
> account of how it was wrought at the time.  It is actually the only
> worthwhile part of that book.  The rest is a little to comfortable
> with its fear of bigness (as Doug might put it) and therefore sees
> little reason to explain why it is a bad thing.

Is Doug or anyone saying net neutrality is a bad idea? If we could get
it, it really would be  a defense against a lot of things that might
cut off information flow - not a complete defense. But I don't see any
down side to net neutrality, and a lot of up sides. And in fact the
threat of legally mandated net neutrality is what keeps ISPs providing
a rough approximation of net neutrality now - fear that if they abuse
their power too much they will lose the ability to abuse it at all.