MoveOn's "net neutrality" fiasco

    Last week, the Senate Commerce Committee cleared major telecom reform legislation that included a consumer focused approach to so-called "net neutrality," an issue being pushed by big high-tech and Internet companies like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and e-Bay.

    Those companies had funneled through their lobbyists and consultants hundreds of thousands to dollars to groups like MoveOn to press Congress for the first real government regulation of the Internet.

    Had MoveOn had its way, Google et al. would have had government regulations put in place that would have made it impossible for new competitors to compete against them online.

    In the end, the Snowe-Dorgan "net neutrality" amendment lost in committee on an 11-11 vote, while the overall bill cleared it on a 15-7 vote. The marked-up bill included rules widely supported by the telecom and cable companies that gave consumers the right to an open Internet and the ability to file complaints with the FCC about network operator malfeasance online and to have those companies fined $500,000 per confirmed complaint.

    "To my way of thinking, there's just no way that groups like MoveOn should've been doing the bidding of Microsoft or Google," says another Democrat-leaning lobbyist. "By taking their money, they are turning a grassroots organization and making it an Astroturf organization with less and less credibility. This 'net neutrality' fight was just a bad thing to be getting involved in."