Transcript of Al Franken Speech re Network Neutrality and NBC Comcast merger

Al Franken spoke today with clarity and vision regarding the role of the FCC and his hopes that the cable industry will not be able to exercise vertical control of the net, from the bandwidth to the content. Long story short… the Comcast/NBC merger must not be allowed to happen!! The following transcript is choppy, but the video of the speech at the preceding link is very powerful. I hope people can watch it and share it. I hope someone can put it on Youtube!

SENATOR FRANKEN:
MR. PRESIDENT, I RISE TODAY TO TALK ABOUT THE GROWING THREAT OF IT CORPORATE CONTROL ON THE FLOW OF INFORMATION IN THIS COUNTRY.

07:40:07 RIGHT NOW, TODAY, WE’VE BEEN DEBATING INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT ISSUES AND I DON’T MEAN TO DETRACT FROM ANY OF THEM.
07:40:13 WE NEED TO BE DOING ANYTHING WE CAN TO PROTECT OUR NATIONAL SECURITY AND REDUCE THE THREAT FROM NUCLEAR WEAPONS.
07:40:22 WHILE WE DEBATE THESE ISSUES IN FRONT OF THE PUBLIC, BEHIND THE SCENES AWAY FROM PUBLIC SCRUTINY, THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION IS ABOUT TO DECIDE TWO DISTINCT BUT VERY CLOSELY RELATED ISSUES THAT HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO CHANGE DRAMATICALLY THE WAY WE GET OUR ENTERTAINMENT, THE WAY WE COMMUNICATE WITH ONE ANOTHER, AND, MOST IMPORTANTLY, THE WAY WE USE THE INTERNET.
07:40:48 THE FIRST MATTER BEFORE THE F.C.C. IS THE PROPOSED MERGER OF COMCAST AND NBC UNIVERSAL.
07:40:57 THERE IS NO QUESTION IN MY MIND THAT REGARDLESS OF WHAT YOU HEAR FROM INDUSTRY, THIS MERGER WILL BE BAD FOR CONSUMERS AND ON MANY LEVELS SMS IT WILL ALLOW COMCAST TO EXPLOIT NBC UNIVERSAL’S CONTENT, CHARGE OTHER CABLE NETWORKS MORE FOR ACCESS TO NBC SHOWS AND MOVIES.
07:41:18 DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT WILL DO?
07:41:23 IT WILL RAISE YOUR CABLE BILLS.
07:41:25 AND NBC UNIVERSAL, WHICH ACTUALLY OWNS 37 BROADCAST OR CABLE NETWORKS, WILL BE FAVORED BY COMCAST TO THE EXCLUSION OF NETWORKS.
07:41:35 OTHER INDEPENDENT OR COMPETING THIS MEANS THAT COMCAST WILL PAY LESS TO CARRY CHANNELS LIKE THE DISCOVERY NETWORK, THE FOOD CHANNEL, BLOOMBERG, OR THE TENNIS CHANNEL, THREATENING THEIR FINANCIAL VIABILITY, OR THESE CHANNELS WILL BE RELEGATED TO THE GRAVEYARD AROUND CHANNEL 690 OR 691.
07:41:59 OR 692.
07:42:01 OR CUSTOMERS WILL HAVE TO PAY EVEN MORE EACH MONTH TO BUY ACCESS TO THESE CHANNELS.
07:42:08 THIS IS BAD FOR CONSUMERS BECAUSE IT’S GOING TO PUT MANY BUSINESS.
07:42:12 OF THESE NETWORKS OUT OF THAT MEANS LESS CHOICE AND MORE COMCAST/NBC PROGRAMMING.
07:42:21 BUT IT DOESN’T END THERE.
07:42:22 COMCAST ALSO HAPPENS TO BE THE NATION’S LEADING WIRELINE BROADBAND INTERNET PROVIDER WHICH MEANS THIS SINGLE COMPANY WILL BOTH OWN THE PROGRAMMING AND RUN THE PIPES THAT BRING US THAT PROGRAMMING.
07:42:34 HERE AGAIN COMCAST WILL BE ABLE TO USE ITS OVERWHELMING MARKET SHARE AND IN MANY MARKETS IT’S NEAR NONE MONOPOLY IN THE INTERNET BUSINESS TO FAVOR ITS OWN VIDEO SERVICES.
07:42:48 SAY, ITS ON-DEMAND SERVICES OVER COMPANIES LIKE NET FEDERALISM THEIR — NETFLIX THAT WERE CHEAPER AND WOULD OTHERWISE WIN UPON AN OVERALL PLAYING FIELD.
07:43:01 THESE ARE OWL ALL PROBLEMS WITH THE OVERALL DEAL BUT IT MAY BE HARD TO UNDERSTAND SO LET ME TAKE A MINUTE OR TWO TO MAKE THIS MORE CONCRETE.
07:43:11 I ASK THE PEOPLE SITTING IN THE GALLERY, THE SENATE STAFF WATCHING THIS SPEERCHTION AND EVERYONE AT HOME IN MINNESOTA — THIS SPEECH, AND EVERYONE AT HOME IN MINNESOTA, HOW MANY OF YOU LIKE YOUR CABLE AND INTERNET PROVIDER?
07:43:24 WHEN YOU CALL COMCAST OR VERIZON OR AT&T ABOUT A PROBLEM, HOW MANY OF YOU GET GOOD SERVICE?
07:43:31 HOW MANY OF YOU LIKE THE PRICES YOU PAY?
07:43:35 WHEN YOU DECIDE YOU WANT TO SIGN UP FOR BROADBAND AND COMCAST TELLS YOU THAT THEY AREN’T SURE WHEN THEY CAN COME TO INSTALL YOUR SERVICE AND THEN FINALLY YOU GET AN APPOINTMENT AND YOU HAVE TO TAKE A DAY OFF FROM WORK TO WAIT BETWEEN 9:00 A.M. AND 2:00 P.M. FOR A REPAIRMAN TO COME AND THEN HE DOESN’T COME, IS THAT HOW YOU FEEL YOU DESERVE TO BE TREATED?
07:44:00 ARE YOU GETTING GOOD SERVICE?
07:44:03 WHEN YOU CALL VERIZON AND SPEND SO 10 MINUTES LISTENING TO AUTOMATED MESSAGES AND PRESSING NUMBERS TO DIRECT YOU TO MORE AUTOMATED MESSAGES AND THEN FINALLY, FINALLY YOU GET A HUMAN BEING ON THE LINE, BUT THAT PERSON TELLS YOU THAT HE OR SHE CAN’T HELP YOU AND YOU GET PUT ON HOLD AGAIN; IS THAT HOW YOU DESERVE TO BE TREATED?
07:44:28 SERVICE?
07:44:30 WHO WHEN YOU’VE HAD ENOUGH WITH BAD SERVICE AND RAPIDLY RISING BILLS ANTS YOU DECIDE YOU WANT TO SWITCH TO ANOTHER COMPANY, HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE FOUND THAT YOU DON’T HAVE ANOTHER CHOICE, THAT THERE IS NO OTHER CABLE PROVIDER IN YOUR AREA?
07:44:47 WELL, I CAN TELL YOU THAT RIGHT NOW COMCAST HAS ABOUT 23 MILLION CABLE SUBSCRIBERS AND ABOUT 16 MILLION INTERNET SUBSCRIBERS.
07:44:56 THEY ARE ALREADY THE LARGEST PROVIDER OF CABLE SERVICE TO AMERICANS BY A VERY LARGE MARGIN, AND IN SOME AREAS THEY HAVE A TOTAL MONOPOLY.
07:45:06 THIS, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN IS WHAT CABLE AND INTERNET CUSTOMER SERVICE IS LIKE TODAY.
07:45:13 DO YOU THINK THAT MERGING THE SINGLE-LARGEST CABLE PROVIDER, WHICH IS ALSO THE LARGEST WIRELINE INTERNET PROVIDER, WITH ONE OF THE BIGGEST TV AND MOVIE STUDIOS IN THE COUNTRY WILL MAKE ANY OF THIS BETTER?
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Netroots Wisconsin

It’s a beautiful fall day, full of cross-currents and coincidence. This is a quick catch-all, catch-up post so i can clear the boards for next week. I have interview questions to prepare for the AARP Orlando@50+ conference and I’ve managed to procrastinate until yesterday’s Cheddarsphere gathering ended because I’m a single threaded kind of guy.

Fall day, past the average “first frost” date, but globally warmer so the horseradish continues to grow and I won’t have to dig it and re-plant until mid-October. That’s by way of speaking of roots… netroots, horseradish roots. Roots? We picked up some beets at the farmers market this weekend too. Where was I?

Two comments in two days on how specifically this listics blogs sucks these days. I was reminded yesterday that the RSS feed is broken. I know. It has been hosed for quite a while. I’ll fix it with the upgrade to WordPress 3.0.1. really, I will. Today in a comment thread at Joho the Blog, Darryl Jonckheere suggested some improvements that I’ll tackle as part of that upgrade as well.

Meanwhile, back at the Cheddarsphere… Steve Hanson hosted Netroots Wisconsin yesterday, a great gathering that pumped energy into the progressive blogging community and provided geekular connexions for many of us who have too little face time with our peers.

The Sunlight Foundation presented a great overview of tools and websites they sponsor in support of the transparency movement. Take a look at the Influence Explorer project!

Cory Liebmann shared a list of resources for research.

Some links I jotted down…

The gathering was held in the Madison Senior Center, a facility my grandmother Ruth Paynter helped to found. Twenty-five years ago or so, there was a plaque in the lobby acknowledging her work. The plaque is gone. Maybe I’ll call and see if we can track it down. One of her great grandchildren would probably get a charge out of having it around.

Meanwhile, I’m ready to prep for my trip to Orlando. From the Madison Senior Center yesterday to AARP this Wednesday, there’s a deeper meaning there, much like the net-roots horseradish trope I used to begin this post. I truly hope I get a one-on-one with Newt Gingrich and a one-on-one with Secretary Sebelius. The beets go on!