Comcast Gets Hard Up At FCC Meeting

alphadogg notes a story over at portfolio.com claiming, and presenting evidence, that Comcast paid people off the street to take up room at yesterday's FCC hearing in Massachusetts. Comcast acknowledges that it paid people to hold places in line for its employees. But Save The Internet claims that people were bussed in by Comcast and then took up almost all available seats in the meeting room 90 minutes before the meeting opened, blocking scores of interested people from attending. Such tactics are not unheard of in Washington DC, but how appropriate are they in a regional meeting on a college campus?

Astroturfing?

[KublaiKhan]

What I want to know is how much one could get per hour as a professional "warm butt"--and what sort of requirements for participation there may or may not be. Are you contractually obligated to applaud, shout, and carry on? Or can you just sit and read a book?

It wasn't all bad

[Anonymous Coward]

It was touching when Bill the Wino, whom Comcast had been promised a fifth of vodka to fill a seat, entered a rare moment of lucidity and shouted, "I will not sell my soul for liquor anymore, net neutrality for all!"

Comcast branching out

[Enuratique]

Looks like the crack R&D team at Comcast has branched out and found a way to manage congestion at FCC filings too.

Re:Astroturfing?

[Otter]

Are you contractually obligated to applaud, shout, and carry on?

Judging from the photo [portfolio.com], it's not a very demanding job.

I'm in the neighborhood, and wouldn't have minded getting paid to stop by for a nap, although preferably not on Camo Dude's shoulder. And I'd have happily complained about RCN for free!

Re:Astroturfing?

[Em Adespoton]

The best method is to get Cisco to bus you in, and then link up to a group IM service so that you can represent all the interested parties who WEREN'T able to get in because of Cisco's seat stuffing :)

Comcast

[Funnydaddy]

With the rising unemployment in the US, Comcast could come to the rescue! Why don't they employ all the unemployed to 'reserve' spaces for their employees? What did they really hope to achieve with this blatant show of trickery?

Re:Commonplace in Washington

[Stanislav_J]

Yes, but you make the erroneous assumption that D.C. lobbyists are as mature as 1st graders...

Re:Who cares where it is located?

[seanadams.com]

Yes, drive their stock up! That'll teach 'em.

Someone has to say it...

[merc]

I for one welcome our conference-room-encroaching net-neutrality-astroturfing chair-sleeping overlords.

Just a good thing Ballmer wasn't there, they wouldn't have been any chairs for THEM to sit on!

Re:The Problem is a Lack of Ethics and Honesty

[Anonymous Coward]

A free society doesn't depend on ethics, it depends on incentives and disincentives for certain behaviors. Predation is punished to preserve freedom.

In any case, as an amoral, agnostic nihilist, I just wanted to chime in and confirm your suspicions.

New Technology

[zieroh]

This is all part of Comcast's new Public Hearing Shaping technology.