Congressmen Who Lobbied FCC Against Net Neutrality & Received Payoff 192
An anonymous reader writes "Ars Technica published an article Friday highlighting the results from research conducted by a money-in-politics watchdog regarding the 28 congressmen who sent a combined total of three letters to the FCC protesting against re-classifying the internet as a public utility. These 28 members of the U.S. House of Representatives 'received, on average, $26,832 from the "cable & satellite TV production & distribution" sector over a two-year period ending in December. According to the data, that's 2.3 times more than the House average of $11,651.' That's average. Actual amounts that the 28 received over a two year period ranged from $109,250 (Greg Walden, R-OR) to $0 (Nick Rahall, D-WV). Look at the list yourselves, and find your representative to determine how much legitimacy can be attributed to their stated concerns for the public."
I don't believe it! (Score:4, Interesting)
All this is, is confirmation of what everyone already knew in their gut, but try to ignore on a daily basis. This is just for something as "small" as net neutrality, use your imagination for more important issues.
Pretty much (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Greg Walden (Score:2, Interesting)
Submit him to Bill Maher's #flipadistrict.
um (Score:5, Interesting)
So... donating to the campaigns of congressmen that'll vote for things you want is now bribery?
Look at their own god damned quoted data: http://maplight.org/us-congres... [maplight.org]
They donated to 397 members of the house out of 435 members which is 91%
Letter 1 was signed by 4
Letter 2 was signed by 20
Letter 3 was signed by 4
So we have a total of 28 signers.
So just random statistical chance would mean 91% * 28 = 26 of them would have received contributions.
27 received contributions, so the total is only off by 1 member or 3%.
Give me a break. Arstechnica is worse than FoxNews. Why does anyone even read that garbage?
I despise ALL politicians, and I fully support net neutrality, but this "story" is a joke.
Re:Pretty much (Score:5, Interesting)
I actually look at what money candidates receive and who paid it. If the people lavishing money on them are my enemy then I tend to vote for the other candidate. All too often though the other candidate is also taking big payouts from the same bastards. It's hard to win when both candidates are bought.