Critics Decry `Secret Deal' as AT&T, Google Huddle With FCC

[Roland99]

Source: Bloomberg

Google Inc., AT&T Inc., and Verizon Communications Inc. executives are meeting behind closed doors with U.S. officials in talks that critics say reduce the public’s voice in keeping the Internet open.

The companies sought a compromise, in a rare Saturday session last weekend at the Federal Communications Commission, on rules proposed by Chairman Julius Genachowski to regulate how phone and cable companies handle Web traffic such as Google’s YouTube videos.

“These kinds of meetings where the substance isn’t being revealed go against the chairman’s promise of an open, transparent and inclusive agency,” said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a Washington-based advocacy group, in an interview today.

...

The FCC may be negotiating a “secret deal” that would keep Genachowski from fulfilling President Barack Obama’s pledge to back net neutrality, said Josh Silver, president of the Washington-based advocacy group Free Press. The agency may be about to “abdicate its responsibility to protect Internet users,” Silver said in an e-mailed statement.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-02/google-verizon-at-t-seek-internet-peace-in-closed-door-talks-with-fcc.html

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. .

:mad: :argh:

[DJ13]

2. a "secret deal”

HCR part deux.

It sounds like were being sold out again without any transparency.

[Dr.Phool]

3. He never campaigned on single-payer internets!

It's not a mandate if everone has to have it!

And other assorted hogwash.

[Ignis]

4. Ah, the New Transparency!

Strangely, it feels much like the Old Opacity. :shrug:

[hvn_nbr_2]

11. Transparency: they talk to two corporations while leaving the public out. nt

[Roland99]

12. Can't wait to see how education reform goes now.

[Frisbee]

5. Please explain to me how....

this is different than Cheney and the energy companies meeting behind closed doors. Sure he's thrown us some crumbs, but this just feels like a repuke-lite administration more and more every day. Simply disgusting.

[russspeakeasy]

6. Now that we've got you hooked.....you'll do/pay what we say...

I remember when people said that someday we'll have to pay to
watch TV...

[ProSense]

7. "The FCC may be negotiating a 'secret deal'" Speculation is now news?

It's a meeting. Is the government supposed to stop having meetings? It's not a secret that they do.

“We are fully committed to preserving the free and open Internet,” Jen Howard, an FCC spokeswoman, said yesterday. The sessions, held in conference rooms at the FCC’s Washington headquarters, are properly disclosed in subsequent public filings, as are all such meetings with agency staff, she said.

[JDPriestly]

8. Any lawyers out there?

I vaguely recall something about federal unfair competition law being interpreted to insure fair access to government agencies for all businesses. Seems to me that those supporting net neutrality need to get a lawyer to look into their rights. I'm sure this is being done.

This is the big problem in D.C. Those who pay get to talk person-to-person to members of Congress, the president and agencies. The rest of us simply are not heard. In this internet age, the unfairness in allocating access to government is very evident.

Over and over, from the BP drilling to net neutrality and all points between, we are seeing that corporations control our environment in ways that can be downright dangerous to us, yet our government exercises no real oversight and does not protect our rights to these things. The airways do not belong to the people who happen to own the equipment that is used to transmit information over the airways. The airways belong to the American people, all of us.

The alternative to socializing businesses (which most Americans do not want) is requiring corporations to consider the best interests of the public in some of their decisions. The irresponsible use of limited resources that ultimately really belong to the public should be punished and prohibited.

This is what Google, AT&T, etc. are colluding about. They want to be able to control the information that we may have access to and may provide to each other. Total corporate control, that is what this is about. Total corporate control of our air, our water, our very sunlight. We cannot permit this. Please sign Al Franken's petition in support of net neutrality just for a start.

[snot]

9. Link here:

http://www.alfranken.com/index.php/splash/netneutrality_vid/

[Roland99]

10. Thanks for that!

[JDPriestly]

13. Thanks.

[PSPS]

14. Some deal

[Rex]

15. Hey if a major news organization can cover up a presidential lie

along with the nations biggest telephone company for over a year, well believing anything today would be a waste of time. They will screw you over more...give it time.