VICE reports:
What do an environmental group in Ohio, a small military radio program, and a network of rural hospitals in Texas all have in common? They appear on a list of coalition members for a group pressuring the government to abandon net neutrality — rules to prevent broadband providers from creating internet fast and slow lanes — but claim they did not intend to sign up for any such advocacy.
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Community Groups Duped into Joining Anti-Net-Neutrality Coalition
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 12 2014, @03:24PM
We are, as a global human society, at a tipping point. Enfranchised interests have unlimited funds at their disposal, and unlimited ability to employ them. At the same time, we as a species have the ability to know if those same interests try to oppress and suppress people in any corner of the globe, from Boston to Botswana. Nonprofits, meanwhile, have experienced a catastrophic loss in their donations that seriously impairs their ability to function. They had, since the 60's, used their existence as window-dressing for the depredations of crony capitalism to fill their budget gaps. But now that things have gone so far, and the ancillary income from Middle-Class donations has dried up (necessarily, thanks to the larger plan), they have jettisoned their explicit mission statements for implicit acknowledgement of the primacy of corruption. It's a very serious indictment of the status quo. How can you do good, as a non-profit, when you know that every dollar you get came by depriving 100 dollars from the victims of the corporations that fund you?
We humans must globally rethink who we are as a species when even something as obvious as net neutrality becomes compromised by non-profits who are supposed to be on our side.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 12 2014, @04:03PM
Not all non-profit groups are made equal. Hitler's Youth was non-profit. So are the Girl Scouts.
(Score: 2) by meisterister on Thursday June 12 2014, @04:10PM
Your point being?
(I suppose that this will be moderated flamebait unless some people have a horrible sense of humour)
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Thursday June 12 2014, @03:56PM
If you read the article, you'll notice that the spokesweasel for the astroturf group never even addresses the question of whether any of the members listed on their public website actually are members or supporters of the organization. Which tells me that they either have a stupid spokesweasel, or know that they've been caught and don't care.
It sure looks like they selected their list of "members" more-or-less at random, without any kind of contact with them. I have to imagine there's some kind of lawsuit you can file when somebody claims that you're an active supporter of a group you either disagree with or have no opinion about, but I'm not sure exactly what you'd get from that besides a very sternly worded letter that they have to take your name down. And by the time that's done, of course, there's a good chance the astroturf group will have served its purpose and disappeared.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by GlennC on Thursday June 12 2014, @05:01PM
My guess is that they know they've been caught and don't care.
It's not as if we can do anything about it anyway, can we?
Sorry folks...the world is bigger and more varied than you want it to be. Deal with it.
(Score: 3, Funny) by The Archon V2.0 on Thursday June 12 2014, @06:36PM
It's okay to do that? Nothing illegal about it?
I think I'll sign Broadband for America up to my new group, "Puppies are Cute and Hitler was a Great Guy".
(It's a long name so we sometimes forget to say the second part in our ad copy. You know how it is, cost per word and all that.)
(Score: 1) by Darth Turbogeek on Friday June 13 2014, @01:27AM
I see reports and stories from VICE are becoming more visible in the last few years and TBH some (not all) seem to be very, very good, with actual journalism on display. Okay some are lousy but you have stories that would not be out of place in the best media and indeed, seem to outdo big name media in their scope and insights.
It's kinda sad. I'm not really up with who backs VICE or what their editorial polices are but when you have VICE and also a "comedy" show like Jon Stewart doing this kind of journalism or commentary while there is this vast swill drowning it out.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 13 2014, @07:29AM
There do have some good journalism mixed in with tongue and cheek hipster style analysis. Try their vice news and mother board sites for some less snarky content.