The telecom slayers

For the first half of this year, it was looking like the telecoms would get what they wanted. In early June, the House voted 321-101 for a version of the Telecommunications Act without enforceable Net neutrality. With Alaska Republican Ted Stevens waiting to shepherd the bill though the Senate, prospects for Net neutrality looked dim.

Stevens, the head of the Senate Commerce Committee, and the man essentially in charge of all Internet policy in the Senate, is one of the more cantankerous figures in the chamber. He has been known to threaten to quit if he does not get his way on certain bills and often wears an Incredible Hulk tie when he prepares to do battle for his pet projects, such as last year's infamous $223 million "bridge to nowhere" in the transportation bill. In June, Stevens delivered a rambling, five-minute speech on Internet policy, which included such gems as "the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It is not a big truck. It is a series of tubes."

The speech turned out to be a boon for Net neutrality advocates. Right after Stevens' command performance, his remarks received the full sardonic treatment on "The Daily Show." Public Knowledge, a nonprofit organization that focuses on technology policy, and supports Net neutrality, posted an audio recording of Stevens' speech on the Web, allowing it to echo across the country. One industrious techno DJ heard the audio file, set it to music and created the song "A Series of Tubes," by DJ Ted Stevens. The video for the song has been viewed more than 200,000 times on YouTube.

With the tide of grass-roots activism rising, the Net neutrality issue surfaced from the Internet and murky halls of Congress into wider public awareness. An unlikely coalition of advocates, ranging from MoveOn.org to the Christian Coalition, the Service Employees International Union to the Gun Owners of America, motivated by what they see as threats to free speech, started taking the issue to their constituents with renewed passion. Aaron of SavetheInternet.com says the strange coalition has definitely turned heads in Washington. "For far too long, media policy has been big companies making decisions behind closed doors. Folks in D.C. got very used to making this sort of monumental decision without ever bothering to ask the public what they think about it."

In late June, the telecoms received a stunning rebuke in the Senate, when the Commerce Committee tied 11-11 on the Net neutrality provision to the telecom bill put forth by Snowe and Dorgan. The vote, says Scott, "sent a shock wave" through the horde of telecom lobbyists gathered in the congressional hearing room, fully expecting to see net Neutrality read its last rites.

Still, while Scott and his army of bloggers have succeeded in keeping Net neutrality alive, there is a difference between a stay of execution and a full pardon. Corporate powerhouses like AT&T and Verizon are not about to roll over. McCurry says it's only because the telecoms "missed the significance of Net neutrality early on in the debate that the grass roots took off at the local level." The grass-roots explosion is based on "psychology" and not "good public policy," he says. He argues that many liberals feel that the blogosphere is to them what talk radio was to the right in the 1980s. "The left feels this is their medium for communication and they don't want big business tampering with it."

But, as Scott points out, with religious right and pro-gun groups supporting Net neutrality, the issue is hardly limited to the left. He declares that SavetheInternet.com is not bankrolled by the big Internet companies, yet the grass-roots mission is increasingly getting a boost by them. In August, eBay CEO Meg Whitman organized a letter-writing campaign, sending out a form letter to eBay users supporting Net neutrality and urging them to print out the letter and send it to their senator. Ed Kutler, a lobbyist for eBay whose office coordinated the letter drop, says he delivered 610,000 letters in one day.

Following the Senate victory in late June, the Net neutrality mission continued to spread. In mid-August, a group of activists gathered in Albuquerque, N.M., outside the district offices of Sen. Jeff Bingaman and presented him with a petition with more than 7,000 signatures, demanding he take immediate action to support Net neutrality. Small-business owners made speeches about how vital Net neutrality is to them, the local news media came and the story was picked up by the local National Public Radio affiliate. Protesters held similar rallies in 25 cities across the country. Four Democratic senators, previously on the fence on the issue, announced they would support Net neutrality in the next session, with Minnesota Sen. Mark Dayton announcing his support at a Minneapolis rally after he was presented with a petition with more than 13,000 signatures.

Flush with success, Aaron is still forced to pose the million-dollar question, the one that has been hounding pundits since bloggers first became a political presence during Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign. "Can we draw enough attention to this issue and get enough votes in Congress to win?" After all, key questions remain: Can the grass roots keep this momentum going? Can activists sustain this kind of activity long enough to wait out the glacial pace of Congress?

While Scott remains optimistic, this is uncharted territory for grass-roots activism on media policy. But he says his ace in the hole is a simple message. "Nothing is easier than going onto the Web and saying to users, 'Everything you love about the Web is threatened.'"

In his Capitol Hill office, Scott keeps a small framed photo from the movie "Cool Hand Luke." It is the famous scene where the defiant Luke, played by Paul Newman, tries to eat 50 eggs in one hour to win a bet. In the photo, Newman looks fatigued and in pain, with bits of egg all over his face, yet facing a heap of eggs sitting on the table. "This is just like Net neutrality," says Scott. "No one thinks we can beat the telecoms, everyone is betting against us. So every day I have to go out and eat 50 eggs in an hour." He pauses, realizing the hugeness of his challenge, but relishing his victory so far. "The bloggers have really changed the debate on Net neutrality," he says. "Had there not been a massive public push on this issue, I am quite confident it would already be over."

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