We've noted for years how companies like AT&T and Comcast are at the cutting edge of throwing money at minority and other groups, then having them parrot support for the companies' latest ambitions -- be that getting a merger approved or fighting net neutrality rules. Telecom lobbyists use a wide variety of groups in this fashion to create the illusion of broad support for what are often incredibly anti-consumer policies. The downside: these groups wind up selling their constituents down river for money without their knowledge.
Comcast has notable expertise at this greasy tactic, going so far as to rename top company lobbyist David Cohen the company's "
Chief Diversity Officer."
Comcast and Cohen spend a lot of time highlighting the company's dedication to diversity, hoping you'll ignore that with the other hand, the corporation consistently undermines those same communities, whether that's by eroding net neutrality or fighting competition in order to keep prices high.
This tactic was exemplified again this week when Congress voted to dismantle consumer privacy protections. The Intercept notes that a large number of groups supporting the rollback of the rules pretended to provide objective input while taking money from the telecom industry.
As a result, groups like the League of United Latin American Citizens and OCA -- Asian Pacific American Advocates, wrote the FCC to proclaim that killing the rules was a good idea because "many consumers, especially households with limited incomes, appreciate receiving relevant advertising that is keyed to their interests and provides them with discounts on the products and services they use."
Politicians and lobbyists than use "support" like this to create a sound wall of bogus voices to justify bad policy, but this process is invisible to most consumers. But the money connecting large ISPs to these groups' enthusiasm for anti-consumer positions isn't particularly hard to track:
quote:
OCA has long relied on telecom industry cash. Verizon and Comcast are listed as business advisory council members to OCA, and provide funding along with “corporate guidance to the organization.” Last year, both companies sponsored the OCA annual gala.AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications and Verizon serve as part of the LULAC “corporate alliance,” providing “advice and assistance” to the group. Comcast gave $240,000 to LULAC between 2004 and 2012.
There's an army of other groups that engage in the same behavior, most of them organized by a telecom-tied group called the Multicultural Media, Telecom & Internet Council. Of course if you ask these groups while their selling out their constituents they'll either refuse to comment (as in the case of the Intercept report) or they'll breathlessly deny any untoward behavior, knowing that ISPs were smart enough to avoid putting this grotesque quid-pro-quo relationship into writing. These groups, and the lobbyists that use them like marionettes, now shift their attention to killing net neutrality protections.