Beck says Net Neutrality would destroy the free market

by The_Cynic | October 30, 2009 at 08:11 pm

153 views | 28 Recommendations | 12 comments

Yes, there are some people who take the showman seriously - more fool them?

Personally I think so - but is it just a matter that Beck plays on ignorance? That wouldn't seem to be the case with those who currently comment about him and are, at least at face value, quite coherent people.

Glenn Beck unveiled his master conspiracy theory yesterday on his Fix News show, essentially claiming the Obama Administration is conspiring to control the media and bring everyone under government control. A key to this, he claimed, was its advocacy of Net Neutrality -- since, as we've already observed, Beck prefers corporate control of your content to government regulations preventing such control.

He displayed just how well he understands these Intertoobs things, too:

Beck: Anyway, you may remember, FreePress is the group pushing for Net Neutrality, which would take the Internet out of the private hands of private business and into the hands of the government. It would create a level playing field. It would help diversity. It would destroy the free market that created the Internet.

SO we do have to ask why these people would believe him over their own government - especially when it comes to such things as net neutrality. Though that term in itself seems to be at odds with itself.

Those of us who follow the geekfest that is the internet and are one inch away from always scratching our heads when some dunce comes on the screen to say what is, in effect, quite the opposite of what is actual fact - the waters get much more murky when the disciples o'Beck spread the news - or rumours as it used to be known, gossip even - and then get all twisted that the government is going to rope us all into gulags.

We have seen from the days that Obama decided to run - after all a black man couldn't be president :Lo, that thee be black we, the masses are not ready, or able to see thee in the House White'.

It is the misconception and outright lies that gets me every time. I am educated enough to use Go-Ogle - it isn't that difficult to hit the keys and get a few answers - yet some, still, rely on people like Beck to bring them forth from the dark-side.

I am sure people have written books about it - I seem to remember 1984 as a classic.

Yet with net neutrality it isn't about the government taking control - it is about government saying that corporations cannot simply, through the use of their ISPs, dictating what you can see on the internet - via regulation that this happens.

OF COURSE corporations don't want government to do that - imagine all that ad space that could be generated if you could only see one particular piece of content at the expense of any other. Though this may seem logical to Beck viewers, it isn't logical in any other sense.

But, we must add to that - the infamous healthcare debate - that, too, has shown that the tea-partyists are out in force making sure that they cannot have healthcare and that those who are supposed to provide it give them nothing in return of their hard-earned dollar.

The same will and can be said for net neutrality.

Maybe there is a new insert into the Urban myth dictionary/Urban dictionary: Beckism. That those of logical mind and are reverent thinkers normally have a Beckism once the word government is used in any paragraph, sentence or speech.

Sad really.

0 See all footage | View Slideshow

Share: email story | add to any | | facebook | stumbleupon

recommend Add a comment

nanute

at 01:20 on October 31st, 2009

Good story. I hope you get more play than I did when I wrote about this last week. Good luck. There are a lot of folks out there that believe his every word. Truly Orwellian.

albertacowpoke

at 02:53 on October 31st, 2009

Cynic thanks for this story. Net neutrality is a concept that is not understood by most as it is very complicated. I doubt that Glen Beck understands the concept.

Proponents and Opponents come from all sides of the political spectrum. I confess I don.t fully understand it, after reading it several times.

My understanding is that it has to do with the control of speed of the internet and ISP providers being able to sell ISP service based on connection speed.

I think this is an important issue that requires some study by most of us before jumping to a conclusion of whether or not we are pro and con. Although Glenn Beck has raised this issue, I am sure it is one he doesn't understand and he should stay out of the debate.

The rest should inform ourselves to reach a conclusion on the pros and cons. Thanks for this story, it deserves our attention without the likes of Glen Beck or any other political interference.

Network Neutrality a Wikepedia Explanation

nanute

at 03:03 on October 31st, 2009

APC

From my piece last week here is a basic definition of what net neutrality means from Tim Kerr at Democracy Now:

And net neutrality is really the fundamental openness principle of the internet. Whenever you connect to the internet, net neutrality makes sure that you can connect to everyone else who’s on the internet. And this has been a tremendous engine for free speech, for economic innovation, for equal opportunity. And we are now fighting with some very prominent internet service providers, very powerful companies, to try to preserve that fundamental openness, so that whenever we go online we can choose, as users, where we go and what we do via the internet.

albertacowpoke

at 03:17 on October 31st, 2009

I understand that concept nanute, but when you look at the Wikepedia explanation it becomes very clouded. The argument on the other side is that it impedes progress and discourages providers to extend their network by creating more fibre optics lines and new technology. That.s why I think we have to really get down and dirty and inform ourselves.

This is not really a Beck story, this is a story about the future of the internet.

nanute

at 03:36 on October 31st, 2009

This same argument was made by the cable companies before the changes to the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Under the guise of upgrading the infrastructure, which would have been done without reform, the providers were given more control of access, and the result was increased cost for service to consumers, with no real increase in competition.

Make no mistake, this is nothing more than a power play by the gatekeepers to restrict the ability to communicate across the internet without paying more for the right.

And Glenn Beck will rally the troops to march on Washington to demand that they pay more for access.

albertacowpoke

at 04:18 on October 31st, 2009

I take your points nanute and you may even have it right on this one I just want to study it a bit more before I take sides. As I said I don.t know enough about it.

nanute

at 04:34 on October 31st, 2009

Take as much time as you like. I wasn't trying to rush you.

Edmund Jenks

at 07:59 on October 31st, 2009

For Obama ... Net Neutrality is a little like Transparency, Post-Racial, Post-Partisan, and the like - ALL LIES!

nanute

at 08:04 on October 31st, 2009

Care to elaborate? I'm not sure I get what you are saying. Are you against net neutrality. Or was this just a rant about Obama?

QueensHart

at 08:37 on October 31st, 2009

I agree ACP. Why not just call it what it is!! MOMMY MAKE BECK GO AWAY HE UPSETS ME!

Roy C

at 08:48 on October 31st, 2009

I don't understand enough about net neutrality to make a comment, but I did watch Beck last night and he was tremendous.

He had on that English lord and they talked about how the global warming treaty would be used to set up a world government to make us pay the poor countries for our accumulated "carbon deficit".

Commie bastardi right out of The Possessed, the latest wave of French and Russian Revolutionaries who got born too late.

Well, maybe I wanna' be the first one on my block to find out I am a bourgeois sabotuer with a warm, comfie cot and 900 calories of gruel waiting for me in Siberia or some place very cold in Alaska or Canada. My dream!