Does Corporate Cash Explain the Networks' Silence on SOPA?

There are a number of FCC policy issues that every independent blogger should be aware of.  Net Neutrality and the Stop Online Piracy Act are two of them. Rulings on both of these will affect access to online information, downloading speeds, and the ability of others to get to our blogs and read what we have to say.  Below, I post a story from SaveTheInternet.com which is related to the policy site FreePress.net.  I suggest check out FreePress.net.  They're on the ball when it comes to the latest policy issues and how they'll impact and open, fair, and equal web.

From Save the Internet.com  Click Here to go to the original.

Earlier this week we pointed to a Media Matters for America study showing that most of the major networks — ABC, CBS, Fox News, MSNBC and NBC — have failed to cover opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA).

Online piracy is definitely a problem. But these bills would do little to solve it. They’re the latest effort in Hollywood’s Sisyphean quest to close the open Internet — and slow down the kinds of online innovation that threaten the old-school media masters.

The parent companies of these networks are used to getting what they want in Washington. Collectively these companies (CBS Corp., Comcast, Disney and News Corp.) have contributed a total of $55,229,497 to political campaigns, and have spent more than $250,000,000 — that’s a quarter billion dollars — on lobbying government officials (look no further than the effect companies like Comcast had on the FCC’s watered-down Net Neutrality rules to see what corporate cash can do to public policy).

Here’s a breakdown by company (these and the above numbers come courtesy of the Sunlight Foundation’s excellent Influence Explorer):

Company	Total campaign contributions	Total lobbyist spending
CBS Corp.	$1,191,253	$26,613,000
Comcast Corp.	$24,823,283	$81,457,323
Disney	$21,064,987	$57,581,991
News Corp.	$8,149,974	$61,239,000