Dot connecting speculation can be fun. Or not.
Cable Lobbyists Pretending To Be Cool Digital Hipsters To Convince Youth That Net Neutrality Is Bad
Re: The Consumerist By Kate Cox October 9, 2014
The fight for net neutrality has players from all corners amped up and joining in. Millions of individuals, as well as consumer advocacy groups, internet businesses, internet business groups, cable and telecom businesses, and their trade groups, have all been pressing the FCC toward one decision or another. But now there are some new groups wading in to the morass. They look like millennial, digital-savvy, pro-internet hipsters — but their message is straight out of Comcast and AT&T’s playbook. So what’s going on?
Recently, as ProPublica describes it, “two bearded young men in skinny jeans” put up what looked like “an art installation” in a trendy neighborhood of San Francisco: a “bright blue, oversized ‘suggestion box’ for the Internet.”
Indeed, what is going on? Who are these mysterious "Men in Denim"?
Answers may lie beyond the orange whatizzit...
Diving further down into Ms. Cox's article (my bold/italics) :
That’s where the mystery comes in: nobody can quite figure that out. The closest message to an actual statement or policy position that Onward Internet has on their site is, the vaguely aspirational word salad, “Unbounded by limits, unfettered by rules, it’s everyone’s responsibility to ensure that the Internet continues to advance.”
That vaguely suggests that Onward Internet is interested in avoiding regulation, which would put them in the same bucket as ISPs like Comcast and Verizon. And while the production agency designing, installing, and manning the suggestion boxes won’t name their client, one person at the San Francisco location did blurt: “It’s something called the National Cable and Telecommunications Association.”
Hmmm... the
National Cable and Telecommunications Association...
Wikipedia has this to say about the NCTA:
The National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) is the principal trade association for the U.S. cable TV industry, representing cable operators serving more than 90 percent of the nation’s cable households and more than 200 cable program networks, as well as equipment suppliers and providers of other services to the cable industry. Officially founded in 1952, NCTA's primary mission is to provide its members with a strong national presence by providing a single, unified voice on issues affecting the cable and telecommunications industry.
From its inception, NCTA has promoted the growth of the cable industry while managing the industry’s regulatory and legislative priorities[citation needed]. The cable industry is the nation’s largest broadband provider of high speed Internet access after investing $100 billion over 10 years to build a two-way interactive network with fiber optic technology[citation needed]. Cable companies also provide digital telephone service to more than 15 million American consumers.
Ok fair enough - NCTA is a lobbying group for the Cable Industry. They obviously would be against true Net Neutrality. The fact that they are possibly sponsoring a stealth campaign that purports to show today's cool youth are against any kind of gov'ment regulations, especially in regards to the wild wild libertarian internets, is pretty standard fair these days. Nothing to see here, move along....
...but Holy Trojan Horse Batman!!! (zip boom powell) ...check out what the Wiki has to say next (my bold/italics):
NCTA is governed by a Board of Directors. As of March 2012, the Chairman of the Board of Directors was Patrick Esser, President of Cox Communications.[2]
The current President & CEO of NCTA is Michael Powell, former head of the FCC, who replaced Kyle McSlarrow in April 2011. McSlarrow left for Comcast.[3]
Other past NCTA presidents include Robert Sachs, Decker Anstrom, Jim Mooney, Tom Wheeler, and Bob Schmidt.[4]
Never mind the fact that the chairmanship of the NCTA is a merry-go-round of powerful Big Cable insiders; check out the past and current incestuous relations the NCTA seems to have with FCC Chairmen.
Mike Powell, a GW Bush appointee and former chief of the FCC is the Prez of the NCTA. And behind the curtain's curtain....none other than Tom Wheeler, current head of the FCC.
Now, I am not accusing Mr. Wheeler of knowing anything about this shadowy but hip Onward Internet group that speculation says is a brain child of the NCTA, his former employer.
I am not going to speculate that Tom knows veteran Bush appointee & trickster Mike Powell, let alone has secret late night rendezvous' with him to learn from a former Jedi master of tomfoolery. (Though it would be a pretty safe bet to say 2 former chiefs of a powerful professional organization in both their career fields, who have both held the chair of the FCC, would have at least spoken to each other on occasion.)
Or if said Jedi trickster would even think of the strategy of funding a stealth Astroturf group of cool hipsters to help influence un-informed and/or lazy denizens of Capital Hill to help kill Net Neutrality.
All that said, I am not asking any of the more experienced and professional internet news sleuths who may read this diary & who may have real sources in KOS land to see if there actually may be few dots to connect here. Heaven forbid. (But couldya, wouldya, if yacould?)
However, I believe it is totaly fair to speculate that Messrs.' Powell and Wheeler may indeed wear the occasional denim. So put away those Neuralizer's for now.
Just sayin'...
Cheers :)