Who Writes Pro-Cable Internet Legislation?
A month ago, we covered the news that a long-simmering municipal broadband bill had been taken off North Carolina’s legislative stove and (to continue the metaphor) jammed back into Raleigh’s government deep freeze. The bill targeted North Carolina communities who thought that broadband ought to be a public utility, and it sought to make such community-owned networks much more difficult. “An Act to Ensure That A Local Government That Competes with Private Companies in Providing Communication Services Has The Support Of Its Citizens” was sponsored by a prominent state lawmaker and backed by incumbent ISPs, including the cable lobby. But it’s not like those ISPs actually wrote the now-discarded bill, right? Local TV station WCNC almost single-handedly makes me want to take back every bit of whinging I’ve ever done about the idiocy of local news, because they approached bill sponsor David Hoyle this week and came back with the sort of quotes journalists would trample their mothers for: In
