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Teletruth News Alert - September 12th, 2006 "United Church of Christ a Stooge for the Baby Bells?" Only in Washington DC would no one bat an eyelash when an astroturf group is a sponsor and prime mover that gives out "ethics' awards in telecommunications at the National Press Club. >The Everett C. Parker Lecture and Awards Luncheon --The 24th Annual Everett C. Parker Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture and Awards Luncheon, will be held Tuesday, September 12, 2006, at 11:45 a.m. at the National Press Club. The event is sponsored by the Office of Communication of the United Church of Christ, Inc. (OC, Inc.) and the Telecommunications Research and Action Center (TRAC). TRAC: http://www.trac.org/events/ We are not commenting on whether any of the recipients deserve their awards. TRAC is run by Issue Dynamics. Sam Simon is the chairman of TRAC as well as the founder of Issue Dynamics, a group that works for the phone companies, Verizon, AT&T, BellSouth to create astroturf groups or work with co-opted consumer, Hispanic, black, seniors or disabled groups for phone company-sponsored campaigns and lobbying. See our homage page to astroturf groups: http://www.newnetworks.com/skunkworks101.html Some Data About TRAC: About TRAC: http://www.newnetworks.com/skunkworksTRAC.html 1) TRAC published a series of biased reports that were used to help the Bell companies enter long distance while trashing AT&T and MCI. This data was used and quoted by Verizon, BellSouth, SBC and others as real. Example: "A new study by (TRAC) found that consumers in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Florida and Georgia could save at least $507 million and up to $1.73 billion on local phone and long distance service after one year of increased competition." 2) Even though TRAC is a non-profit, it was able to use money from Issue Dynamics (the Bell companies as clients) to do these reports. TRAC IRS filings for 2002 showed TRAC made $19,600, had $47,000 of expenses, and owed Issue Dynamics and others $122,000 in liabilities. "During the year, TRAC purchased goods and services from an affiliated taxable organization named Issue Dynamics, inc. Issue Dynamics, Inc. provider management services as well as overhead costs for fees to TRAC." 3) Economics & Technology wrote about TRAC and its data: "The so called consumer group that released these long distance studies, TRAC, is actually the creation of a Washington, DC public relations firm who's clients include Verizon, all of the other Bell companies, and the Bell companies' lobbying organization, the United States Telephone Association." "The study's various assertions and assumptions, and the conclusions based thereon, are demonstrably false." See; http://www.teletruth.org/docs/ETItestimonyvirginia2002.pdf
4) Teletruth filed a complaint with the FCC over the fact that TRAC and other Bell funded groups are on the FCC Consumer Advisory Committee. http://www.teletruth.org/consumeradvisory.html
About the Other Sponsor, United Church of Christ. (UCC) Sourcewatch outlines some of the relationships between the Bell companies, Issue Dynamics and the UCC. http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=United_Church_of_Christ And a story at http://www.UCCtruths.com asks "United Church of Christ Stooge for the Baby Bells?" Verizon (and Issue Dynamics) created a rally and campaign with various groups including UCC and the Gray Panthers to make MCI, then Verizon's largest competitor, look bad in the courts. Ironically, it worked and Verizon ended up buying MCI. What's wrong with "astroturf" groups? These faux grass-roots groups and their 'skunkworks' -- a cabal/campaign that controls the message for various groups --- are essentially out to deceive the regulators, the press and the public. This allows BellSouth, AT&T and Verizon to use "non-profit status' to create campaigns that benefit these companies, but have the look-and-feel of being good for consumers. Or worse, there are co-opted organizations such as American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) or League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), that represent various black, Hispanic, disabled or seniors' issues. Because of their corporate funding, they make decisions that help their non-profit organization, but at a cost -- many of the issues they back don't help their constituents. And there is a great deal of documentation that shows that various Bell-funded campaigns raised customer rates, retarded competition and slowed America's broadband deployment and the economy -- real harms because faux groups have the funding of deep-pocket corporations to shout louder than anyone else. This problem is widespread and hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent to fool the public. Go to Issue Dynamics web site and you find that the company is 'creating buzz for IPTV'. By coincidence the Bell companies are fighting to offer IPTV -cable services, are trying to get rid of any restrictions on state and federal level from the FCC to Congress. Issue Dynamics also created "NMRC", New Millennium Research Council to do the new research funded by the phone companies. "IPTV: NMRC Report and Telenews Event ---IDI was approached to create a new buzz about the possibilities of IPTV. IDI and partner think tank, the NMRC, produced a dynamic 17 page report and held a telenews event which attracted 20 news outlets and was covered by over 50 national publications." http://www.idi.net/about/case-studies/iptv-1.html Common Cause has released two reports on the new crop of organizations that are "wolves in sheep's clothing", examining the current net neutrality and broadband and franchise debates. http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=2007877&auid=1871905 Over the next two months, Teletruth will be updating this information. However, it is clear astroturf and skunkworks organizations represent the antithesis of ethical behavior. Maybe someone should tell this to those in Washington DC. Bruce Kushnick, Teletruth |