Clichesville: When it rains, it pours; The tide has turned

Posted by Mitchell - September 28, 2006 (entry 432)

You know, sometimes you spend months on end at the desert only to arrive at an oasis. Then it starts raining. Hard.

Tomorrow, on April 26, the House Committee working on media issues (the Commerce and Energy Committee) will mark up its proposed addenda to the Telecommunications Act. Many people felt that it would be a cakewalk to get corporate favors written into the bill and passed under people's noses. But in the past 48 hours, that has changed dramatically (or so it would appear).

Exhibit A: The Save the Internet coalition launched officially last night, with CMA as a charter member organization. This has been getting some press coverage and much wider outreach, thus putting COPE Act supporters on the defensive.

Exhibit B: Bobby Rush, who has faced criticism for his support of the controversial COPE Act, did have some money involved. We knew of at least $7,500 of campaign contributions from telecom companies like AT&T. But today, the Chicago Sun-Times reports in a front-page story that the number is actually more like one million dollars.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed on this website are those of the individual members of Chicago Media Action who authored them, and not necessarily those of the entire membership of Chicago Media Action, nor of Chicago Media Action as an organization.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.