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?

Who cares where it is located?

[garcia]

Such tactics are not unheard of in Washington DC, but how appropriate are they in a regional meeting on a college campus?

Huh? I am all for thinking that this is dick move but to ask "how appropriate" it is seems a little ridiculous. It's a fucking college campus -- if anything, it shouldn't be permitted in "Washington, DC" (whatever that means) but if someone wants to fill a campus auditorium with highlighter toting narcoleptics, so be it.

All this shows is that Comcast is willing to play dirtier than ever to ensure that their network operates in the manner they deem necessary. Normally I couldn't care less what a private business does with its customers but when they have a permitted monopoly in as many areas as they do, they should be held accountable for the bullshit they have been pulling using pipes that my tax dollars helped fund.

Buying free speech

[AndyAndyAndyAndy]

It wasn't as much for blocking competition from other companies but from blocking the public from speaking out. There's gotta be some law against this kind of thing...
Oh wait...

What does this say

[palegray.net]

... about the people who accepted money to "attend" a meeting they knew nothing about? Pretty shitty ethics on both sides of this transaction.

Re:Who cares where it is located?

[wolff000]

I'm with you 100%. Comcast should be held accountable for this. If law makers are doing it they need to get booted and brought up on charges as well. This kind of thing just makes me sick.

Re:What does this say

[urbanriot]

Hahah what planet are you from? I don't know many people that *wouldn't* accept a few bucks for sitting in a court room while they listen to their ipod or txt their friends, let alone people that might be down on their luck.

... about the people who accepted money to "attend" a meeting they knew nothing about? Pretty shitty ethics on both sides of this transaction.

No big deal, they did it before

[Anonymous Coward]

Just look at who is running the FCC these days. Comcast, Time-Warner, the telcos, have all paid 'campaign contributions' to pack the FCC with anti-consumer/anti-competition appointees. I'm sure that they also sleep through meetings since all they need to do is get their orders from industry and pass it on to staff for implementation. The only decision making is when the telcos and cable operators disagree on who gets to screw consumers harder.

Re:Commonplace in Washington

[KublaiKhan]

Seems to me that if it's your job to go to a meeting that you should sit your own rear end in line.

Besides, the more you have these lobbyists tied up waiting, the less you have them actually lobbying--so perhaps the congresscritters might have to listen to their constituents for once, if only out of sheer boredom.

Re:Who cares where it is located?

[proudhawk]

All this shows is that Comcast is willing to play dirtier than ever to ensure that their network operates in the manner they deem necessary. Normally I couldn't care less what a private business does with its customers but when they have a permitted monopoly in as many areas as they do, they should be held accountable for the bullshit they have been pulling using pipes that my tax dollars helped fund.

if you really want to get the attention of comcast (and others), everyone should buy up as much stock as possible in comcast (and others), assign it to a voting block and force them to do the right thing by the power of voting stock. I know it sounds simplistic, but sometimes, its the simple things that get the job done.

Comcast should lose for that

[kawabago]

Comcast should be censured for it's behaviour but it's Amerika, if you've got money, it doesn't matter what you do. That's what's really wrong with America too.

Re:Bribery is illegal... Comcast should be penaliz

[Anonymous Psychopath]

Who got bribed? Are you replying to the right article?

Re:just like OOXML!

[QRDeNameland]

Is it any surprise? Our political and business leaders have been teaching us more and more all that the path to success is scumbaggery. Lie, chisel, and cheat; and as long as you are powerful enough to get away with it, you will be richly rewarded. Honor, ethics, and good reputation are quaintly outmoded concepts, and those who cling to such silly traditions are in a race to be the last sucker.

The problem is not that people will attempt such venality to get ahead; this has always been the case. The problem is that, increasingly IMHO, the rest of us let them get away with this crap with their reputations intact.

Re:What does this say

[palegray.net]

Sorry, I care about the ethical implications of things people want to pay me to do. You could just as easily say "what person in their right mind *wouldn't* accept a few bucks for selling crack to high schoolers, let along people that might be down on their luck..."

Please note that I'm not implying that selling crack should be illegal (actually, I think it along with other drugs should be legalized), only that I consider it an unethical way of earning income.

The fact that a lot of people are willing to do anything for a buck is likely a true one, but it doesn't excuse the lack of ethics on these peoples' part. Note that I'm actually taking the optimistic view that they were aware of the implications of their actions; the truth may in fact be that they're too dense to realize it and have shown us a keen demonstration of the age-old saying that democracy is a system of government under which the people get no better than they deserve.

Wow. I'll stop with the run-on sentences now. Sorry about that.

Re:Astroturfing?

[geekoid]

You harbor under the myth that pay is some how tied to physically working hard.

Re:Got Frat-boys?

[GabrielF]

If the frat boys are showing up because they have an agenda or they are generally interested in a topic than thats fine. I wouldn't even have minded if Comcast employees had shown up en masse, but paying people who are going to sleep through the event is despicable since it prevents members of the public who have a legitimate interest in participating in government from attending.

The Problem is a Lack of Ethics and Honesty

[mlwmohawk]

Ethics are a lost cause. Ethics and being unethical used to be a serious issue. Honesty and Ethics used to be the characteristic of a great person. These days, no one expects ethics, no one even values ethics. When the majority of people act ethically and honestly, there is negative feedback to unethical behavior. When the majority of people don't care about ethics, unethical behavior is the norm.

So much of a free society depends on ethics and the deal of ethics will be the death of freedom.