NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Big Tobacco and the Fight Against Net Neutrality: Smoke in the "Heartland"
Big Tobacco and the Fight Against Net Neutrality: Smoke in the "Heartland"
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000630.html
Greetings. Several years ago, at an Internet issues-related
conference, I was pulled aside by an attendee who identified himself
as being involved in high level lobbying "inside the Beltway"
(Washington D.C. area). He offered me some free advice. In essence
it was this:
"You guys are babes in the woods when it comes to the ways of
Washington. If you don't learn how to play the game the way the big
boys do, you're all going to be plowed under when it comes to the
Internet issues that you care about."
He was right of course. Pro-Net-Neutrality Google has been around
just more than a decade, but anti-Neutrality telephone companies have
been playing the Washington game for a good century of so. And
technologists (including myself) often tend to view issues in logical
terms. After all, our stock in trade -- literally -- usually depends
on logic. So we're not inherently prepared when opposing forces
attack with an emotional kick to the groin.
This has all taken on renewed meaning in light of the recent attempts
by some elements of the anti-Net Neutrality camp to portray Net
Neutrality as some sort of "communist" plot and those persons and
organizations who advocate Net Neutrality as Marxist inspired. This
is red-baiting in the finest tradition of "Tricky" Dick Nixon, and the
rise again of this despicable technique almost a full decade into the
21st century seems both remarkable and nauseating.
But perhaps it's not really surprising, especially in an age of Big
Lie politics, particularly among some elements of the Far Right.
"Health reform will create death panels!" "Obama wasn't born in the
U.S.!" Now add to these false memes, created purposely to sucker in
the right-wing political faithful, the new Big Lie: "Net Neutrality is
a dangerous government takeover of the Internet and a communist plot
by Marxist sympathizers!"
It was this latter nonsense that I was reacting to with my (apparently
controversial) video satire that I released a couple of days ago:
"Is Net Neutrality a Communist Plot?" ("Declassified DoD Film"):
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000627.html
But where are the accusations of communism and Marxist activities
coming from in the first place? We know that "Mad Man" Glenn Beck (as
"Time" called him) has picked up the refrain. But where did it
all get started?
One source appears to be the "free market solutions" organization
known as "The Heartland Institute." A recent Heartland paper by James
G. Lakely, discussing Net Neutrality and the free software movement
seems representative
( http://www.heartland.org/publications/policy%20studies/article/26061/ ).
The string "communist" appears in the paper no less than twelve times.
Excerpts from that paper have appeared on various religious and right
wing-oriented political sites around the Web.
It turns out that The Heartland Institute has been around for about 25
years, but only recently really aimed its guns at Internet issues.
The write-up of the company at SourceWatch makes for fascinating reading
( http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute ).
According to SourceWatch, Heartland reportedly opposes the Kyoto
Protocol to fight global warming, promotes privatization of public
services and the deregulation of health care insurance, and perhaps
most interestingly, has also apparently been heavily
intertwined with the tobacco industry in various ways, including
funding from Philip Morris for a number of years at least (more
recently, Heartland's corporate funding has been very secretive and
opaque):
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Heartland_Institute#Tobacco_ties
I'm certainly not saying that Heartland is doing anything illegal.
They're welcome to their opinions, and politics isn't for
lightweights.
But I am saying that the attitude of some persons in the
pro-Net-Neutrality camp -- that logic and reasoning alone will
convince regulators, courts, and legislators of the righteousness of
Net Neutrality -- is extremely naive.
To use a dreaded Star Wars analogy, such attitudes are like pulling up
in a tiny ship between the Death Star and a target planet, and
transmitting "Can't we all just get along?"
The battle for Net Neutrality has now entered the realm of hardball
politics at the most extreme levels. It's time to fish or cut bait.
Either we play the game the way the Big Boys do, or we'll just be
spinning our wheels with endless verbiage that in the end will
probably amount to little or nothing.
If we truly care about the future of the Internet and the need for Net
Neutrality, playtime is over. The war truly starts now.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP - Global Coalition
for Transparent Internet Performance - http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein