There’s a dangerous trend which has been rearing its head more frequently and more blatantly. The corporations who have purchased Congress and the White House are planning to eventually eliminate all government-funded services which “compete” with them.
The most blatant example is Wall Street’s attempt to dismantle, er, I mean “privatize” Social Security.
Less publicized was Rick Santorum (R-PA) bending over for one of his favorite johns, AccuWeather (located in Pennsylvania). Santorum introduced a bill this past April that would prohibit the National Weather Service from providing free forecasts which “compete” with AccuWeather and other private weather services.
Now we have HR 2726 which would prohibit local governments from providing internet access. City governments, schools and community organizations are providing low-cost internet access to countless low-income and rural customers who would not be reached by the cable and broadband conglomerates.
Similar laws have been defeated in several states, so the telecommunications industry is now pushing this at the federal level. Yup, those “States’ Rights” conservatives are at it again.
This bill would prevent local governments from providing “any telecommunications service, information service or cable service” anyplace where a corporation offers a similar service. Eliminating all competition — that’s a pretty strange definition of “free enterprise.”
The Internet provides access to thousands of news sources — of all political viewpoints. The mainstream “media” has become little more than a mindless tabloid — a good source of celebrity gossip and corporate / government press releases but not much else. It’s increasingly necessary to go online if you want real news or a wide range of opinions. The way to maintain a level playing field is to keep Internet access as widespread as possible.
We need to stop these corporate attempts to monopolize public services and utilities. It’s a dangerous trend that needs to be nipped in the bud. Kill it before it multiplies.
What’s next? Will FedEx and UPS try to eliminate “competition” from the Post Office? Those pesky libraries are providing unfair competition for Barnes & Noble. Get rid of them!
Please send an e-mail to protect your internet access and oppose this corporate thievery.
Thanks to Editrix from Mediaocrity for writing about this proposed law (last week).
cross-posted at Who Hijacked Our Country
Thanks for alerting us, Tom! I knew about Santorum and the weather service, but HR 2726 ? That’s nuts!
Will write now.
I was pretty shocked when I first read about it. Mediaocrity (who I credited in my post) was the only other blog where I’ve read anything about this. Word needs to get out.
Signed up and sent a letter from their website. Thanks for the heads up, it seemed to me that PA, just had a law passed that allowed Philly to have broadband, but would deny the rest of the cities in the state to offer it. Can anyone open that door for more information.
FreePress.net. This is the organization that held the National Conference for Media Reform that I attended in May. (Diary here.) That’s the conference where Bill Moyers delivered probably the best speech I’ve heard in my life.
This was a BIG issue at the Conference.
Free Press has been keeping up with this and other critical media issues. Spend some time at their site – it’s a wealth of info.
There is a real threat to internet access. Not that it will be cut off entirely – for everyone – or that the internet itself will be killed somehow, but that our access to it will be increasingly expensive and limited. More and more people will not be able to get online due to limited geographical access or inability to afford access. Not to mention more and more “subscription” web sites for news, a la the WSJ.
I think that’s one of the tactics of the cable/broadband companies. If they can’t get it 100% the way they want it, they’ll settle for allowing one city or region to provide internet access, in return for having it prohibited in the rest of the state.
We already have this in Idaho. I live in a small rural area, 5 miles from one small town and 4 miles from another small town. There is cable and high speed internet access in the City limits of the larger of the two small towns, and within 2 miles of me. They don’t want to come out into sparse areas, so there is nothing but dialup available and the state has told us that is the way it will be. End of story. This gets brought up to the legislature frequently, but they love our only phone provider Qwest. We don’t have any options for phone service as well. Cell phone service at my home has such a weak signal it is worthless so you can’t supplant Qwest that way either. And a 3rd world country like Belize has high speed internet for the entire country? Hmmm, guess it is time to move.
Oh and, in the city limits of small town Rigby, base rate phone service is $14.00 a month and mine is $40.00. It all works out you see. . .
My previous comment was answering Ghostdancers Way (about broadband companies allowing access in one city but not the rest of the state). I must have misplaced the comment by clicking at the wrong place.
Janet Strange: Yeah, FreePress.net is a great site. All kinds of grassroots information and activities.
Limited access and subscription-only news sites: that’s not the direction we want to go.
Shirlstars: Yeah, that sounds like a lot of cases I’ve heard about. If you don’t live in a housing tract right in the middle of town, they don’t want to know about you. If this trend gets worse, I think a lot of 3rd world countries will be more wired and connected than us.
And $40 a month instead of $14 — that sucks all right.
I’ve gotten into too many discussions where I’ve been told – who cares about the MSM anyway – we have the internet as an alternative. Well, how exactly are you reading this very comment? How am I writing it? In my case, it’s thanks to Time-Warner cable, provider of RoadRunner.
What Time Warner giveth, Time Warner can take away.
Here’s the link to the FreePress page that discusses community access and gives a map that shows the states that already have laws that prohibit cities from offering internet access to their citizens and the states where it is being considered. Also Sessions’ appalling federal legislation.
I was totally shocked by these laws – especially when I heard that some communities (where it’s still legal to do so) are finding it possible to offer their citizens broadband access – and not lose money on it – for $9-14/mo.
Since I got back from St Louis, no one I’ve told about it has heard of this – even though the laws are already on the books in 11 states. Some, I think, are checking my head for tinfoil, sure that I’ve made it up. It simply doesn’t seem possible that laws can be passed forbidding cities from offering their citizens a service – but it’s happening.
We need to keep spreading the word. I notice that your diary didn’t get much response – I’m sure a lot of people didn’t click on it because it sounds like, well, a tin foil hattish kind of rant. But having been at St Louis, I knew it was not – and that most people, even us tech savvy types blogging away, have no idea this is going on. SusanHu didn’t know this! She knows everything!
Like I say – don’t let it drop just because your diary didn’t get much response here. It takes a while before something this far-fetched sinks in. Far-fetched, like say, Bush was planning to invade – somewhere – in 1999 before he was selected in 2000.
Yeah, it’s definitely shocking. It’s easy to think the Internet is just something that’s “there,” like water when you turn on the tap. Just turn on your computer, log on and there’s all of cyberspace right there at your fingertips.
I’m surprised at how few responses this post got. At my own site I’ve only had 3 comments; I usually get at least 15 or 20 for each post. Maybe it sounds too sensationalistic, or maybe everyone thinks “the Internet, but it’s just there. What could they do?”
But, remember our “public” airwaves that are now owned by a few billionaires.
I have several FreePress sites bookmarked, and I’m on at least one of their mailing lists. They’re a great organization; something we need. I definitely don’t want this to drop. I’ll check regularly at the FreePress and look for their warnings, e-mails to be sent and forwarded, etc.