Sunday I tried to explain that Net Neutrality is not some new government regulation, but simply philosophy that business should not be allowed to set up toll boths simply because they oversee a small part of the whole. I also had to point out the letting Telcom Industry control the pipes is very much in a paranoid governments best interest and of disinterest to a general peaceful populace.

Today I’m going to share with you some of the ludicrous spin I’ve seen. An ex-Clinton Press Secretary is claiming the internet is currently ‘creaky’ and a populist-sounding heavily-Teclom- funded website is claiming the government is ruining the internet and only free market highest-bidder practices can save it.

When this issue first came up I thought Ebay and Yahoo and Google would never let this get through. I assumed their modenr savy ways would be no much for the lumbering teclo industry. What I’m realizing that tons of smart new money still can’t buy out-buy what long-term cozy Washington relationships can. In fact they can’t even out-lobby or out-spin.

CNN ran this fluff-peice by Mike McCurry as an independently written opinion item. Mike, the ex-Clinton Press Secretary, has suddenly become quite an internet expert who says the ‘creaky’ internet needs to be rebuilt. Creaky? I have never heard any of the original architects of the internet say there is a problem right now. In fact Vint Cerf, creator of TCP, (the gateway of all internet data transfer)testified as much in Washington recently. ‘Creaky’ is assuredly a strategically chosen buzzwords to plant an image there is a problem with the internet.

I wish I could end this entry but the spin-nausea doesn’t stop.

Aside from providing strategic communications counsel at at Public Strategies Washington Inc. Mike McCurry is currently a co-chairman of Hands off the Internet, a coalition of telecommunication-related businesses that claim regulating net neutrality - which is simply saying things are going to say the way they are - is a giant government overstep. They claim it’s a giant slap in the face to hard working Americans. But really when this group says ‘hands off the internet’ they means ‘get your hands off it so we can grab it tighter.’ The mission statement sounds like a populist manifesto until you get far enought down to read: “the best way to avoid burdensome and unnecessary regulation and mandates is by ensuring that market forces deliver the benefits that only fair competition can bring to the American consumer - maximum choice in supplier, content and technology.” Sounds great until you see who is paying for this campaign. The blog makes me ache with the dexterity the writer used to pin those not supporting the current system (the one that works so well now) as anti-American and the sites pull quote read with the doom of a Weekly World News headline.

It funny, for all those hands, not one real people’s organization is a member of this group.