{"id":805,"date":"2008-02-27T10:30:14","date_gmt":"2008-02-27T10:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2008\/02\/27\/if-only-dickens-were-around-to-write-the-novel\/"},"modified":"2008-02-27T10:30:14","modified_gmt":"2008-02-27T10:30:14","slug":"if-only-dickens-were-around-to-write-the-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/UnhinderedByTalent.com\/Phi\/archives\/2008\/02\/27\/if-only-dickens-were-around-to-write-the-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"If only Dickens were around to write the novel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"People<\/a>
\nPhotograph from Portfolio.com<\/a>, courtesy of: Free Press<\/p>\n

From yesterday in Portfolio.com<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\nHow big are the stakes in the so-called network neutrality debate now raging before Congress and federal regulators?<\/p>\n

Consider this: One side in the debate actually went to the trouble of hiring people off the street to pack a Federal Communications Commission meeting yesterday\u2014and effectively keep some of its opponents out of the room.<\/p>\n

Broadband giant Comcast\u2014the subject of the F.C.C. hearing on network neutrality at the Harvard Law School, in Cambridge, Massachusetts\u2014acknowledged that it did exactly that.<\/p>\n

Comcast spokeswoman Jennifer Khoury said that the company paid some people to arrive early and hold places in the queue for local Comcast employees who wanted to attend the hearing.<\/p>\n

Some of those placeholders, however, did more than wait in line: They filled many of the seats at the meeting, according to eyewitnesses. As a result, scores of Comcast critics and other members of the public were denied entry because the room filled up well before the beginning of the hearing.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Feel free to stomp around and tear your hair a bit. I know I did.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Jim Long for the pointer<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\t

\n\tTags: internet<\/a>, law<\/a>, news<\/a>, Politics<\/a>, tactics<\/a>
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