Comcast Blocks Public Debate at FCC Hearing

This just in from the folks at SavetheInternet.com (about the forum on net neutrality we announced in this earlier posting):

WASHINGTON — Comcast has admitted hiring people to fill up the limited number of seats at yesterday’s Federal Communications Commission hearing at Harvard. More than 100 people were turned away when the event reached capacity. The public hearing was part of the federal agency’s ongoing investigation into allegations that the cable giant is blocking consumers’ access to legal Web traffic.

Timothy Karr, campaign director of SavetheInternet.com, issued the following statement:

“First, Comcast was caught blocking the Internet. Now it has been caught blocking the public from the debate. The only people cheering Comcast are those paid to do so. Clearly, Comcast will resort to just about any underhanded tactic to stack the decks in its favor. And yet Comcast still expects us to trust them with the future of the Internet?”

Read Portfolio’s story.

Read the SavetheInternet.com blog.

2 Responses to “Comcast Blocks Public Debate at FCC Hearing”

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  mac9 says:

  February 26, 2008 at 10:49 pm

  God I hate Comcast. If DSL weren’t abysmally slow at my office, I would have canceled the service a long time ago :\

   
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  AL says:

  February 27, 2008 at 8:45 pm

  Comcast takes the same approach to public debate that it has to Internet access: that it can wield substantial political and market power to shut out debate and shut up people. For too long, communications policymaking has been rigged against us. We need to send a wakeup call to phone and cable giants and their powerful lobbyists that they will no longer set the agenda. Check out this new video we just released: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYGtNmmb2y0The purpose of the Internet is to give power over information to everyone. The role of our elected leaders is to protect our basic right to communicate from those who want to take it away from us. Whether it’s on the Internet or at public hearings we must stand up for everyone’s right to connect.