The Tubes

The Boston Globe had an interesting editorial yesterday about the FCC hearing on Comcast's claim that the company has a right to block certain programs their customers want to use. The longish editorial handled the issue fairly and, more importantly to non-geeks like me, did so in easily understandable language. For that reason alone, it's worth a read.

What intrigued me, however, was a side issue:

COMCAST CORP. hired seat-warmers to make sure it would have supporters in the crowd at a hearing by the Federal Communications Commission at Harvard Law School last week. The company needed a favorable audience. Its executive vice president was about to make a dubious claim: that Comcast had the right to block (or delay, depending on one's perspective) use of the BitTorrent program by subscribers to Comcast's high-speed Internet service.

The FCC held the hearing to determine whether Comcast was violating the agency's principle that, on the Internet, "consumers are entitled to run applications and use services of their choice." ...

Interested parties sometimes hire seat-warmers before hearings in Washington. Like those lobbyist-heavy events, the Harvard gathering featured more people in suits than would normally be seen in a law school classroom. The question for Congress is whether the high-speed Internet of the future is being shaped to serve their interests - or those of the people who couldn't make their voices heard before the FCC.

Public hearings are supposed to be just that: public. Allowing one of the parties to swamp the hearing room with "seat-warmers" defeats the whole purpose, whether those hearings are held in government buildings or elsewhere. The exclusion of those who might have a legitimate, if contrary, point of view is hardly an example of democracy in action. Surely there exists a way to make certain that more than one point of view is presented at such hearings.

Just sayin'.