AT&T plays hardball with ‘astroturf’

by J Scott Christianson, Columbia Daily Tribune Columnist

Tomorrow the House Special Committee on Utilities will consider SB 284, the Missouri Video Franchise Bill. I wrote Feb. 6 that SB 284 is a bad bill. It would reduce public oversight of the cable companies that use public easements, it would essentially eliminate local PEG (public, education and government) channels, it would allow telecom companies to cherry-pick high-profit customers, and it would reduce the ability of government to audit those companies for compliance with the law.

After that column, the president of AT&T in Missouri, Cynthia Brinkley, wrote a letter to the editor to set the record straight. She assured Tribune readers AT&T has the public’s interest at heart and just wants us all to enjoy the benefits of increased competition.

Perhaps I was just too cynical. After all, the Missouri Communications Alliance, a Missouri not-for-profit grass-roots organization established to “further the common good and general welfare of the citizens of the State of Missouri,” applauded the passage of SB 284 in the Senate. Of course you have heard of the Missouri Communications Alliance, or MCA. No? Well, me neither, but with a name like that it must be good.

Turns out, I wasn’t too cynical after all. The MCA is not a grass-roots organization but an example of a disturbing trend in lobbying — the astroturf organization. “Astroturfing” is when a corporation sets up a dummy not-for-profit organization to lobby…