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Cable Corn Farmer Sock Puppets Attack Google
Weirdest headline of the year award....

Both cable and phone companies hire outside lobbying firms to make up completely bogus consumer groups to support their political positions. But they also frequently donate cash to minority, disability and other advocacy organizations in exchange for vocal political support for policies that, more often than not, aren't in constituents' best interest. The combined tactics make it appear to lawmakers and an uncritical press as if anti-consumer positions have broad consumer support.

Groups like the National Association for the Deaf and the NAACP regurgitate the political positions of their baby bell donors, and even FCC boss Kevin Martin complained how minority groups were used as political tools to fight his quest for a-la-carte TV pricing (though you'll notice he'd ignored similar tactics by phone carriers). To the consumer it appears that civil rights groups just really hate network neutrality.

The latest attempt at sock-puppetry, according to CNET, is the cable industry's use of corn farmers to attack Google, whose positions on network neutrality and white space broadband, as well as their ad stranglehold, have angered the cable industry. Metadata contained in a letter professing to be from the American Corn Growers Association was actually written by the LawMedia group, a secretive lobbying firm employed by the cable industry.

Cable denies they're involved in any such campaign, though I've yet to see any phone or cable company publicly admit to using these kinds of political tactics. Cable isn't alone in its efforts to send its sock puppet groups after Google. The lobbying and PR firms employed by AT&T and Verizon have also made Google public enemy number one.

The result of these attacks, of course, will be Google's inevitable use of similar tactics, though they'll be up against a formidable opponent. The phone and cable industry has perfected their PR and lobbying game to the point where they're able to use the once-objective Department of Justice as a PR agent. The loser in the end will be the consumer, who won't be able to find the telecom truth amidst all the public relations and lobbyist smoke.
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Dogfather
Premium Member
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA

2 edits

1 recommendation

Dogfather

Premium Member

Cable denies?

As previously mentioned before all the postings were deleted, they (Comcast) denied traffic shaping and packet forging too.

We all know that cable and telcos never lie.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

1 edit

FFH5

Premium Member

Re: Cable denies?

said by Dogfather:

As previously mentioned before all the postings were deleted, they (Comcast) denied traffic shaping and packet forging too.

We all know that cable and telcos never lie.
The corn farmer group also denied that they were involved with cable or telco and that they were against Google on their own hook over anti-trust concerns. And the author of that CNET news item listed his wife is a Google employee.

Dogfather
Premium Member
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA

4 edits

1 recommendation

Dogfather

Premium Member

Re: Cable denies?

Yep, just a big coincidence that the PDF was authored by an employee (Alexandra Esser) of a well known lobby firm employeed by the cable industry to fight Google.

As far as the wife of the author, unlike cable and telcos, the author discloses that fact.

What a joke...almost as funny as the lame NCTA anti-net neutrality propaganda.

»www.youtube.com/watch?v= ··· YxtjLFeI


The cable and telco industries have a long history of lying. I don't believe for a second that this is all coincidence nor do I believe a single word coming out their spokeholes' mouths.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned)

Member

Re: Cable denies?

said by Dogfather:

Yep, just a big coincidence that the PDF was authored by an employee (Alexandra Esser) of a well known lobby firm employeed by the cable industry to fight Google.

As far as the wife of the author, unlike cable and telcos, the author discloses that fact.

What a joke...almost as funny as the lame NCTA anti-net neutrality propaganda.

(youtube clip)
cable and telco industries have a long history of lying. I don't believe for a second that this is all coincidence nor do I believe a single word coming out their spokeholes' mouths.
That clips is sooo wrong. first of all google and everyone already pays for their bandwidth. secondly if you make Google, ESPN, Amazon etc etc pay do you think they are going to eat that cost? No, they will pass it on to WHO? That's right YOU the consumer. So this stupid bitch says WE will pay with net neutrailty, fails to tell you that we will pay even MORE without it. yeah I'm sure wal-mart is going eat the cost of having to pay ISP because of all the million of peole that shopa t it's website. What wal-mart will do is make employees cut back hours or just reduce their pay.

Dogfather
Premium Member
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA

4 edits

Dogfather

Premium Member

Re: Cable denies?

It's the NCTA...they're whores just like the NAtB and every other lobby group. They don't give a crap how many lies they tell, so long as they trick the public, stop the public from having their voices heard and get the right politicians bribed so that they represent industry interests over the interests of consumers or competitors.

KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium Member
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
Netgear WNDR3700v2
Zoom 5341J

KrK to 88615298

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to 88615298
We disagree about many things--- but you and I agree here 100%.

That ad is such a fraud. As you say, the plan is to double, triple, quadruple dip and make billions for the Telco and Cable monopolies and wipe out their competition---- and as you say, WE would have to pay for every CENT of it!
KrK

KrK to FFH5

Premium Member

to FFH5
said by FFH5:

The corn farmer group also denied that they were involved with cable or telco and that they were against Google on their own hook over anti-trust concerns.
Uh-huh. They're just mad because someone connected the dots.
omgdave3
join:2006-12-31
United State

1 edit

omgdave3 to Dogfather

Member

to Dogfather
said by Dogfather:

As previously mentioned before all the postings were deleted, they (Comcast) denied traffic shaping and packet forging too.

We all know that cable and telcos never lie.
Can you point me to where the postings were deleted? And who do you think did it (the deleting), DSLR or the Comcast shills?
Thanks,

Dave

*edited for an attempt at clarity*

Dogfather
Premium Member
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA

4 edits

1 recommendation

Dogfather

Premium Member

Re: Cable denies?

Can't point to them, they were deleted. I don't know who deleted them and it could have been a mistake 'cause there was nothing crazy in any of the posts that would warrant deletion.

There was about 4 or 5 posts and all were removed at the same time. TK had a post, and I think it was Moonpuppy who had one. And I had one. I went to do another follow up and was met with the error "Board does not exist" or something to that effect. I refreshed the page and the posts were gone. So I reposted my point and that's how I got first post.

This happens on rare occasion. The last time I remember this happening was with one of Karl's good ole "FiOS installers tear up sh!t" articles which were frequent at the time (this was probably 2 years ago). But in the article it turned out that FiOS installers weren't really reponsible for the damage. If I remember right, the street was mismarked by the utility company who owned that underground infrastructure or something. In either event, FiOS being the religion here that it is, Karl was quickly called out on it and all the posts were deleted, followed shortly thereafter by the entire news item since it no longer fit the FiOS installers wreak havok agenda of the period.
moonpuppy (banned)
join:2000-08-21
Glen Burnie, MD

1 recommendation

moonpuppy (banned)

Member

Re: Cable denies?

said by Dogfather:

There was about 4 or 5 posts and all were removed at the same time. TK had a post, and I think it was Moonpuppy who had one. And I had one. I went to do another follow up and was met with the error "Board does not exist" or something to that effect. I refreshed the page and the posts were gone. So I reposted my point and that's how I got first post.
Yep, TK posted how Cable was not involved and I responded with how Comcast said they didn't forge packets.

Can you really trust corporations?

Like the saying goes, "It is better to beg forgiveness then ask permission."

Karl Bode
News Guy
join:2000-03-02

Karl Bode to Dogfather

News Guy

to Dogfather
quote:
Can't point to them, they were deleted. I don't know who deleted them and it could have been a mistake 'cause there was nothing crazy in any of the posts that would warrant deletion.
It was a mistake. I accidentally re-published the story during an edit to include a hyperlink and it nuked the four or five comments.

Dogfather
Premium Member
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA

2 edits

Dogfather

Premium Member

Re: Cable denies?

Ah, bummer. I was hoping for a grander anti-cable conspiracy. Guess I'll have to settle for the check circulation headline conspiracy.

wifi4milez
Big Russ, 1918 to 2008. Rest in Peace
join:2004-08-07
New York, NY

wifi4milez to omgdave3

Member

to omgdave3
said by omgdave3:
said by Dogfather:

As previously mentioned before all the postings were deleted, they (Comcast) denied traffic shaping and packet forging too.

We all know that cable and telcos never lie.
Can you point me to where the postings were deleted? And who do you think did it (the deleting), DSLR or the Comcast shills?
Thanks,

Dave

*edited for an attempt at clarity*
As someone who didnt post, I can confirm it happened about 15 minutes ago. I went to click on the link and I got a "post not found" error (or something like that). I am not going to speculate what happened however, but I am simply confirming there were comments that disappeared.
Austinloop
join:2001-08-19
Austin, TX

Austinloop

Member

Re: Cable denies?

I wonder if I am a sock puppet because I don't really trust Google all that much, especially about medical records, or MS for that matter.

Dogfather
Premium Member
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA

Dogfather

Premium Member

Re: Cable denies?

If you're paid off, yer a puppet. If you geniunely believe net neutrality is bad, then you aren't.
Austinloop
join:2001-08-19
Austin, TX

Austinloop

Member

Re: Cable denies?

I am not paid off and I don't geniunely believe that net neturality is bad, I just don't trust Google, Yahoo, or any of the other folks that want to store info on me.

Dogfather
Premium Member
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA

Dogfather

Premium Member

Re: Cable denies?

Then you simply don't trust them and your skepticism is warranted.

The puppets Karl refers to are these groups and astroturfers who are simply bribed into taking one position or another.
omgdave3
join:2006-12-31
United State

omgdave3 to wifi4milez

Member

to wifi4milez
Thanks everyone. I thought there were posts in the middle of a thread that disappeared, not everything posted. Sounds like a site problem, for sure.

Dogfather
Premium Member
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA

1 edit

Dogfather

Premium Member

Re: Cable denies?

Karl Bode See Profile mentioned he did it by accident. He accidently republished the news item when he tried to add a link in the article. When that happened, it deleted the posts.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

FFH5 to Dogfather

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to Dogfather
»news.cnet.com/8301-13578 ··· 1_3-0-20
Guillermo Meneses, previously a press secretary for the Democratic National Committee, is now a senior vice president at the LawMedia Group. He said that he was "unaware" of any communications between the American Corn Growers Association -- which has no history of being interested in the antitrust implications of online advertising -- and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association.

We reported on Wednesday that the anti-Google letter to Congress, signed by a number of farmers' groups who insisted they were the only ones to write it, included the name of a LMG staffer in the PDF metadata. Meneses said that the staffer, Alexandra Esser, "merely PDF'd a copy before distributing it."

PhonePower
Premium Member
join:2007-07-20
Winnetka, CA

PhonePower

Premium Member

So Absolutely True

I have been to several PUC metings where people come out of the woodworks, are totally uninformed about the topics, but know exactly what to say when they get up on the podium.

The deck is so "stacked" it's sick.

Sad state of affairs.

newview
Ex .. Ex .. Exactly
Premium Member
join:2001-10-01
Parsonsburg, MD

newview

Premium Member

. . . and history keeps repeating itself

Cable denies they're involved in any such campaign . . .
I'd bet they're lying . . . after all, that's what they ALWAYS do.

Dogfather
Premium Member
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA

Dogfather

Premium Member

Re: . . . and history keeps repeating itself

Certainly expected from an industry who's largest company pays people to pack public hearings on Net Neutrality so that the general public can't get a voice.

newview
Ex .. Ex .. Exactly
Premium Member
join:2001-10-01
Parsonsburg, MD

newview

Premium Member

Re: . . . and history keeps repeating itself

It's certainly a sad state of affairs when lying is an expected agendum.

Dogfather
Premium Member
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA

Dogfather

Premium Member

Re: . . . and history keeps repeating itself

It's cause there is no consequences for it. They can lie all they want and nothing happens. Verizon/BS gets to keep the $2 billion they stole from Pennsylvania and Comcast chugs on after packing FCC meetings with shills and lying about packet forging.

FFH5
Premium Member
join:2002-03-03
Tavistock NJ

1 edit

FFH5

Premium Member

Re: . . . and history keeps repeating itself

said by Dogfather:

Verizon/BS gets to keep the $2 billion they stole from Pennsylvania
Verizon/BS??? Don't you mean Verizon/BPA. Bell of PA then became Bell Atlantic and then Verizon. BS merged with AT&T and not Verizon.

Dogfather
Premium Member
join:2007-12-26
Laguna Hills, CA

2 edits

Dogfather

Premium Member

Re: . . . and history keeps repeating itself

My bad, it was Verizon/Bell Atlantic who got the perks but didn't live up to the Chap 30 requirements.
inslyx
Premium Member
join:2008-02-12
Carrollton, TX

inslyx

Premium Member

Super Karl.

Introducing...Karl: Policing the world, 1 cable company at a time.

KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium Member
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK

KrK

Premium Member

Re: Super Karl.

Someone's got to. The mainstream media sure won't.. in fact they'll read the PR statement like it's FACT!

touchngo
@ameritech.net

touchngo

Anon

Tried to Infiltrate

One of my friends tried to infiltrate one of those bogus consumer groups. They held a meeting for the union when the telcos were lobbying for new telco laws in my state. The only problem is that he was the only person who actually showed up.

koam
Pink Pecker
Premium Member
join:2000-08-16
East Puddle

koam

Premium Member

that ain't

no sock puppet

GlobalMind
Domino Dude, POWER Systems Guy
Premium Member
join:2001-10-29
Indianapolis, IN

GlobalMind

Premium Member

Meanwhile...

Kay Bailey Hutchison will find a way to blame this on ethanol.