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June 19, 2006BELTWAY BLOGROLL
Net Neutrality: A Blog Swarm Without Sting?
The fight to ensure "network neutrality" for content on the high-speed Internet has generated plenty of attention in the blogosphere, but the lawmakers who will decide the matter do not appear to be fazed by the blog swarm.
When the House debated the issue last week -- and voted soundly against strengthening net neutrality language in its telecommunications bill -- only one lawmaker even mentioned blogs, according to a search of the debate in the Congressional Record, and it was a rather dismissive reference, too.
"[T]he advocates for this amendment claim this amendment is about consumers, the little guy," said Charles Gonzalez, D-Texas. "Countless bloggers have written all members of Congress in fear if this amendment does not pass, they will no longer be free to express their opinions on the Internet and have their voices heard.
"Let me tell you as directly as I can to all the bloggers out there, to all of [the] e-mailers out there, to all the households out there, to the average American: This [net neutrality] amendment is not about you. It is not about the consumer."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., challenged that view with this statement: "Bloggers, our citizen journalists, could be silenced by skyrocketing costs to post and share video and audio clips." But those written comments were inserted in the Record, not spoken on the floor.
In the Senate, meanwhile, Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, told Bloomberg News that the Senate is likely to defeat the push for net neutrality, just as the House did. "I believe we'll have a similar vote on the floor of the Senate on net neutrality." And he added: "When it comes to interfering with the marketplace, in terms of major expenditures of capital, I think we should stay away."
Net neutrality is on the agenda at the George Washington University Institute for Politics Democracy and the Internet in two days. No bloggers will speak on the panel. But Mike McCurry of Hands Off the Internet, the Democrat who Democratic bloggers have villified as a "shill" for the telecom industry and a "liar," will be.
Get the list of other panelists and details for the event here. RSVPs are requested. People who want to register can follow the link to do so online or via email, or call Ed Trelinski at (202) 994-1003.
CLARIFICATION: One of the panelists at Friday's discussion, Danny Weitzner of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, does indeed have a blog. I checked it out, and he actually blogged about net neutrality recently.
I also failed to mention in this post, as I did in my original column on the net neutrality blog swarm, that IPDI panelist Scott Cleland of NetCompetition has a blog dedicated to net neutrality.
I share all of that to clarify that when I said "no bloggers will speak on the panel," I was referring to what I'll call pure bloggers, for lack of a better term -- in other words, people whose public personas are tied primarily to their blogging.
UPDATE II: PoliticsTV has video of the IPDI event, and Save the Internet has a partial transcript that claims "Telco Argument Implodes During D.C. Debate."
The video includes the question-and-answer segment, where MyDD blogger Matt Stoller proved himself to be ready for a career in journalism: He asked a question of McCurry that consumed more than two-and-a-half minutes.
Stoller's pre-question commentary made references to a "disinformation campaign," "falsehoods" and "bad faith and trust." But at least he didn't address his question to the "Mouthpiece For Deception."
Stoller's name came up in a different context yesterday at The Channel Changer, a blog that author Patrick Hynes bills as "one man's crusade for communications competition." Hynes noted a controversy surrounding MyDD founder Jerome Armstrong and wondered whether it might prompt Stoller to "have a word with [Armstrong] or at least rethink his affiliation with MyDD."
Posted by Danny | 01:06 PM
