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Common Cause has produced a report, titled "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing," which describes some of the astroturf front groups that have been created by the cable, telephone and internet industry to lobby for legislation favorable to corporate interests. Groups such as Consumers for Cable Choice, FreedomWorks, the Progress and Freedom Foundation, the American Legislative Exchange Council, New Millennium Research Council, Frontiers of Freedom, Keep It Local NJ, Internet Innovation Alliance and MyWireless.org "accept subsidies or grants from corporate interests to lobby or produce research when they normally might not, but too often fail to disclose the connection between their policy positions and their bank accounts. ... These sorts of campaigns are dangerous for our democracy. They deliberately mislead citizens, and they deliberately mislead our lawmakers, who are already charged with the difficult task of making sense of complex telecommunications policies."

Comments

We need a "seal of approval" as good as UL

John www.tiea.us

Underwriters Labratory (UL) is a gold standard for
independent seals of approval. We need a similar
standard sponsored by a consortium of foundations
with reputations for telling the truth.