Next Astroturf Target - Net Neutrality

Commentary By Ron Beasley

Will �Astroturf� Groups Block Net Neutrality Reform

Astroturf VS the "real" America.

Chris, McGreal, a reporter for Britain's Guardian newspaper,
took to the road last month to report on how Americans living along
Route 66--made famous in John Steinbeck's fictional Grapes of Wrath journey--are faring during the recession.

You might think McGreal quickly encountered "real Americans"
protesting President Obama's "socialist" healthcare agenda by hurling
insults at town hall meetings. Cable news channels are full of these
images, which together portray the United States as a giant angry
grassroots rally against reform-minded policies.

Odd, then, that McGreal reports this:

The outbursts against President Obama's healthcare plans filling
television screens, with opponents calling him a Nazi and accusing him
of planning death committees to do in old people, are to a large degree
manufactured by the same people who use similar tactics to oppose
abortion. 

So what are Astroturf groups?

Jim Hightower describes
astroturf organizations as "the corporate version of
grassroots...well-orchestrated PR efforts that put real folks out
front, but are instigated, organized and funded by corporate interests
and right-wing front groups."

Astroturf groups like Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks
rent themselves out to combat policies that hurt major corporations,
from ExxonMobile to AT&T. They were behind April's Tea Bag rallies,
which protested tax increases, and flew hot air balloons as part of a campaign to discredit climate change.

And their next target is Net Neutrality:

Astroturf groups have set their sights on blocking the passage of a
valuable new bill called the Internet Freedom Preservation Act. The
bill, introduced into the House in early August, would protect the
Internet from telecommunications and cable companies who want to
control access to online content--and thereby make more money.

The principle that protects the Internet freedom we now enjoy is Net
Neutrality, which leaves us free to visit any website and create and
share anything we can imagine. This "open" platform allows us to bypass
the old corporate gatekeepers to create our own entertainment, and
organize for social change without fearing that an Internet service
provider like Comcast or AT&T will block our messages because they
disagree with our politics.

Net Neutrality as a baseline rule for the Internet was stripped away by a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling
(PDF link) that effectively allowed phone and cable companies to
discriminate against websites, applications or services that they
didn't like.

So without the Internet Freedom Preservation Act companies like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Qwest could block Newshoggers because they don't like what we are saying.  Now they obviously could not get any real support for blocking the bill so enter a crazed mob of morons screaming communist, socialist and fascist.  Now crazed mobs of morons make for great Tee Vee so that's all the American people and their elected officials will see. Classic Astroturf!