More on Seat-Warming: Analog Service Denial?

February 28th, 2008 Comcast’s “seat-warming” execs can’t be trusted Posted by Robin Harris @ 7:19 am

Comcast hired dozens of “seat-warmers” that kept others from attending a Monday FCC hearing held at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society meeting room for an FCC hearing. God forbid that the public be seen at a hearing intended to solicit public comment. Then they lied about it.

According to an article in the Washington Post, Comcast acknowledged that it hired an unspecified number of people to fill seats, but said those people gave up their spots when Comcast employees arrived to take their places. Catherine Bracy, administrative manager of Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, disputed that assertion, saying most of the three dozen seat-warmers . . . remained during the event’s opening hours, as many other people were turned away. “No employees came in to take those seats when the event started,” Bracy said. “Put the crack pipe down and take 2 steps back!” Nothing says confidence like hiring people to stack the audience.

Comcast justified its actions, saying "Comcast said it hired seat-holders only after the advocacy group Free Press urged its backers to attend. ...For the past week, the Free Press has engaged in a much more extensive campaign to lobby people to attend the hearing on its behalf,” the company said in a written statement. You haven’t heard of the powerful lobbying group Free Press? Me neither. But they have Comcast shaking in fear. And taking stupid pills by the fistful. Trust Comcast to regulate the Internet? They can’t manage the PR for a public hearing let alone the Internet.
Morons.

The Storage Bits take
Net neutrality means the telcos are common carriers who are not allowed to discriminate against some users. The principle goes back over 150 years to the early days of telegraphy. That this principle is even being debated is a tribute to the power of the telcos and their “seat-warmers” in Congress and the FCC. Comcast can’t be trusted and neither should any other telco.

Robin Harris has been selling and marketing data storage for over 20 years in companies large and small. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.