Ironically, when I said, "no one is censoring the Internet," Free Press -- which had been making dire predictions of Internet censorship -- turned around and censored its blog. So, now I will have to amend that statement to read, "Comcast never censored the Internet -- but Free Press, a well funded lobbying group which is pushing for regulation of the Internet -- has."
NotFreePress
· 1 year ago
When will FreePress tell us who funds them? Why can't they be "transparent" too? This censorship on their blog is bad...
Brett Glass
· 1 year ago
No one outside of Free Press itself knows for sure who is funding them. I do have an unconfirmed report that Free Press' biggest donor is the Ford Foundation. This is ironic because one of the Ford Foundation's key agendas is to promote democracy. (Regulating ISPs out of business, as Free Press's agenda would do, would obviously harm democracy by harming people's ability to get online, get informed, and participate.)
The situation is obfuscated by the fact that Free Press is really two groups: "Free Press" and the "Free Press Action Fund." (I'm not counting their other aliases, such as "Save the Internet" and "Internet for Everyone," because these are just Web sites and not actual organizations -- though they look, deceptively, like separate groups to the casual observer.)
Free Press is registered as a 501(c)(3) public charity, and the Free Press Action Fund is registered as a 501(c)(4) (a cateogory used by trade associations and lobbying groups). 501(c)(3) groups are very limited in their ability to lobby, so apparently many of them try to do an "end run" around this restriction by forming an affiliated 501(c)(4) that lobbies for the things they can't (or spends more on lobbying that they're allowed to). This defies the intent of Congress when it restricted the ability of 501(c)(3)s -- which can receive tax deductible contributions -- to lobby. But it is a loophole that many Washington lobbyists will probably continue to exploit until it is closed.
Fortunately, Federal law does make nonprofits' Forms 990 a matter of public record, so I've posted the Free Press Forms 990 for the year 2007 at http://brettglass.com/FreePress990.pdf and http://brettglass.com/FreePressAF990.pdf. Note that between the two corporations, they've spent more than $700,000 on lobbying on "network neutrality" and related issues! That's more than any small, independent ISP like ourselves -- or even a trade association consisting of all of us together -- could ever hope to raise. The forms give a better perspective on who is really David and who is Goliath here. Free Press, with millions in funding between its two corporations, is no small underdog!
All Comments
The situation is obfuscated by the fact that Free Press is really two groups: "Free Press" and the "Free Press Action Fund." (I'm not counting their other aliases, such as "Save the Internet" and "Internet for Everyone," because these are just Web sites and not actual organizations -- though they look, deceptively, like separate groups to the casual observer.)
Free Press is registered as a 501(c)(3) public charity, and the Free Press Action Fund is registered as a 501(c)(4) (a cateogory used by trade associations and lobbying groups). 501(c)(3) groups are very limited in their ability to lobby, so apparently many of them try to do an "end run" around this restriction by forming an affiliated 501(c)(4) that lobbies for the things they can't (or spends more on lobbying that they're allowed to). This defies the intent of Congress when it restricted the ability of 501(c)(3)s -- which can receive tax deductible contributions -- to lobby. But it is a loophole that many Washington lobbyists will probably continue to exploit until it is closed.
Fortunately, Federal law does make nonprofits' Forms 990 a matter of public record, so I've posted the Free Press Forms 990 for the year 2007 at http://brettglass.com/FreePress990.pdf and http://brettglass.com/FreePressAF990.pdf. Note that between the two corporations, they've spent more than $700,000 on lobbying on "network neutrality" and related issues! That's more than any small, independent ISP like ourselves -- or even a trade association consisting of all of us together -- could ever hope to raise. The forms give a better perspective on who is really David and who is Goliath here. Free Press, with millions in funding between its two corporations, is no small underdog!