FRAMESHOP:FRAMESHOP: NET NEUTRALITY AND THE 'DUMB PIPE' BLOG ADS

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Last week, Progressive blog readers everywhere woke up to find a new ad asking "What is the future of the Internet?" staring at them in classic, hipster blog style.  Since there is an active Save The Net campaign underway by Progressive blogs, most readers just assumed that the new ad was a contribution to this ongoing effort, and clicked away.

To their horror, 'What is the future of the Internet?" is actually a viral ad campaign by 'the other side' in this issue.  It is an ad advocating against a free and open Internet, and in favor of the effort to essentially give the Internet over to big media corporations--not unlike the choice to give broadcast media rights away to big corporations.

Rather than delete the ad from Frameshop, I choose to leave it up.  Why?  Two reasons. 

First, Frameshop readers are smart. There is not a single person who reads Frameshop who will look at the 'What is the future of the internet?' ad and suddenly decide that they want to vote against net neutrality and in favor of a Republican government giving the Internet to a big corporation.

Second, at Frameshop we do not run from Republican spin.  We shoot out its tires, tow it back to the shop, jack it up on lift, use our analytical tools to rebuild the engine, and then drive it back out into the debate.

We are debate grease monkeys, not political scaredy cats. 

So...the ad stays up.   Spread the word that it is deceptive and send everyone to Frameshop to read the discussion of how it works.

The frame used in the ad:  dumb vs. smart

When you click on the ad, what unfolds is a very hip animation asking a bunch of questions.  This is an ad that attempts to blur the line between conservative and progressive.

Most people associated a certain informal, hipster aesthetic with Liberalism and a very stodgy, uptight style with Republicanism.  The ad plays on this prejudice to trick people at first into thinking that it is not advocating for industry, but for the people.

But the real trick in the ad is the way it frames its message by asking readers if they want the Internet to be a 'dumb pipe.'

The logic is familiar to radical conservative thought everywhere:  Anything the 'free market' takes care of is good, advanced, lower priced, better for everyone;  Anything the 'government' takes care of is bad, retrograde, expensive, bad for you.

I remember during the 1995 Presidential campaign, the C'Ville Weekly ran a cartoon making fun of Bob Dole for this exact argument.  The cartoon (which I cannot locate, unfortunately), showed Bob Dole complaining about all the bad things the government did while showing in the background all the horrible things that government care for the common good prevents.  In the first square, airplanes crashed into each other behind Dole.  In the second, kids were swimming in toxic waste.   And so forth.    The message was clear and..pretty funny:  Government cares for the common good, while big corporations--if left unchecked--care for profit at the expense of the common good.

The net neutrality debate is more of the same.

If laws are passed that essentially give the Internet to large media holdings corporations, the result will not be toxic waste in the lakes our children frequent or crashing airplanes.  The result will be a high speed Internet network where content is regulated not by The Constitution of the United States, but by the corporate boards concerned more with profit than freedom of expression.

Imagine an Internet where the names of everyone who mentions President George W. Bush--or any President for that matter--are routinely turned over the government  for safety reasons.'

Imagine an Internet where content is reviewed by advertisers who delete anything they see as in conflict with the sale of their products.

Imagine an Internet where email is sent at lightening speed, but at a charge of $.35 per click and $1.25 per attachment.

That is the Internet being promoted by the ad What is the future of the Internet?"

So, smart readers, do not worry about that ad. Instead, click  on the 'save the net' button at the top of this post and take a few minutes to get to know the issue.

And while you are checking out the 'save the net' campaign, say 'Thank You!' to the folks who paid ad revenue to Progressive bloggers to run their anti-net-neutrality ad.  Because of their generosity from that ad, I could afford to buy a $10 case of selzer water to wet my whistle during the heat wave this week.

© 2006 Jeffrey Feldman