http://wifinetnews.com/archives/005233.html
By Glenn Fleishman
Okay, this is a new one on me: the curtain is thrown back but the
socks keep on talking, claiming there's no hand inside them: This
is pretty remarkable, but the New Millennium Research Council and
Issue Dynamics are defending their paid work on behalf of their
incumbent telecom and cable customers directly. No pretense, no
hiding. They want their cake and eat it, too.
Can it be said any clearer in this News.com article than a policy
advocate at Consumer's Union? "Sometimes we agree with the phone
companies, and sometimes we don't. But we never accept any money from
an interested party."
NMRC pretends to be independent. I have asked the many reporters who
have interviewed them, and unless they ask, the funding sources
aren't revealed, though NMRC does disclose its relationship with
Issue Dynamics on its Web site and vice versa. Reporters are being
handed experts to talk to that don't provide reasonable disclosure
about their financial ties to the organizations they are commenting
on.
The president of Issue Dynamics, Sam Simon, says, "We try to be
reasonably open about the fact that some research funding is from
business interest." It's true, they are from their end. But NMRC
is much less so, and it's not in Issue Dynamics's clients
interests for NMRC to be seen as an arm of the media relations
firm. (Update: Simon has jumped into the fray in the comments below;
I've posted his remarks unedited and replied.)
Full story at:
http://wifinetnews.com/archives/005233.html
How to Distribute VoIP Throughout a Home:
http://michigantelephone.mi.org/distribute.html
If you live in Michigan, subscribe to the MI-Telecom group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MI-Telecom/
Jack Decker (jack-yahoogroups@withheld_at_request)