Selling Out The Internet: Heartland Institute Took $285,000 From Telecoms, Opposed Net Neutrality

Selling Out The Internet: Heartland Institute Took $285,000 From Telecoms, Opposed Net Neutrality


Earlier this week, bloggers at ThinkProgress and De Smog Blog obtained leaked documents detailing the fundraising plan of the Heartland Institute think tank, which says its “mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems.” The documents, among other things, lay out complicated plans to court corporate donors and to challenge climate science with disinformation, even in our kids’ classrooms.
Interestingly, the documents show that that the think tank took a whopping $285,000 from the telecom industry in between 2010 and 2011. The donations come from telecommunications giants like AT&T, Comcast, and Time Warner. Yet the largest set of donations are provided from the CTIA — the wireless industy’s trade association.
The think tank does not explicitly explain in this document why it took so much money from the industry, but it does talk about doing “concerted outreach” to “businesses with financial interests…in cable and internet tax and regulation issues (with [senior Comcast government liason] Mike Rose).”

Read more: http://www.republicreport.org/2012/heartland-net-neutrality/