Ars Technica played around for a little while in campaign donor records and found that AT&T "easily" qualifies as the top donor in political campaigns since 1990. Since that time, AT&T has doled out a whopping $45,461,879 to politicians, significantly more than runner ups the National Association of Realtors ($36,749,493) and Goldman Sachs ($32,660,452). AT&T's donations were bi-partisan in nature, though they did favor an Obama White House, apparently (AT&T was paid back with
immunity for charges of illegal wiretapping):
quote:
Following the money is easy when it comes to AT&T. Figuring out the corporation's politics is harder. In 2008, for example, the carrier spent $14,736,518 on federal and state office seekers. But the company spread the loot around in a fairly bipartisan manner. Open Secrets classifies the corporation as a fence sitter when it comes to politics, although during the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama was clearly the telco's favorite.
Ars correctly notes that while AT&T does donate to a number of groups, many of them are simply given money to
parrot AT&T positions -- in essence also becoming lobbyists. Granted, we're not even counting the money AT&T spends on fake consumer groups, PR agents, statistical magicians, "fauxcademics" and other efforts, all working (of course) on AT&T turf protection by ensuring limited competition, easing regulation on AT&T should they
want to get into the TV business, or having competitors more heavily regulated.
Most importantly, that kind of lobbying power means AT&T gets to have the laws changed, should they oh,
break them. Repeatedly.