From Talking Points Memo, an alert about putting the Internet into the hands of corporate America:
Last week I mentioned that there's a
very bad bill moving through Congress. It's supported overwhelmingly by
Republicans but also by a lot of Democrats too. Basically the bill
would turn over the control of the Internet to the phone companies --
though 'phone companies' is probably now an antiquated phrase for
Verizon and AT&T and other such outfits. There's a lot more
underlying complexity to it of course. But the change could make it
much harder to access TPM or any source of news or entertainment that
isn't owned by some big corporation or, more likely, have the inside
track with one of the phone companies. If you're cool with AT&T
deciding the sources of use you can access then you probably won't
mind. But if you like making those decisions yourself, you may want to
speak up.
Here's one group mobilizing against the bill: savetheinternet.com. Another group that is on the case is publicknowledge.org.
This isn't some obscure issue of interest only to policy wonks. It
may seem like it, but it's not. It's a very big deal and I strongly
encourage you to find out what's going on.
We tend to take for granted how the Internet evolved. For all its
shortcomings, it is a remarkably level playing field where all sorts of
voices -- the strong and the weak, the popular and the despised -- can
all make their voices heard. Yes, Viacom's voice is louder than TPM's
or Atrios's or Newsmax's. But if you want to read TPM, we're right
here, just as easy to visit as the media giants.
But it won't necessarily stay that way.