A SavetheInternet Coordinator brags about fearmongering -- the advocate "that cried Wolf!"

It's very interesting what people will slip and say when they are being lionized by a reporter. Salon's recent piece: Telecom Slayers, describes Ben Scott as "one of the SavetheInternet's coordinators," "a leading advocate for net neutrality," and "the closest thing to a field general in the grass roots campaign to ensure net neutrality."

It must have been pretty heady stuff for Ben Scott to hear the liberal icon: "the Salon", compare him to the biblical David that slayed the telecom Goliath!

Unfortunately when among such a fawning audience it is easy to let slip something you would rather take back when the ego baloon ride comes back to earth.

I was surprised that Ben Scott admitted so candidly to what I have been saying in my blog from the beginning -- that net neutrality is all about fearmongering and not the facts or merits. Let me quote Ben Scott from the Salon article Telecom Slayers in the second to the last paragraph: "Nothing is easier than going on the Web and saying to users 'Everything you love about the Internet is threatened.'" 

Hmmmmmm. Is Ben Scott telling us between the lines that... 

"he thinks Internet users are stupid lemings who will believe whatever you tell them as long as you manipulate and scare them into thinking their Internet is at risk?" 

"he doesn't have to do any hard work, or present facts or be truthful on the issue, all he has to do is repeat over and over that 'everything they love about the Internet is threatened?'"

Sounds to me that Mr. Scott doesn't think much about the intellect, discernment, or sense of fairness of the average American Internet user.

It also sounds a whole lot like the children's fable we have all heard, where the Boy cries"Wolf! Wolf! and laughs hyterically at what he views as stupid leming villagers who run to his aid because "nothing is easier" than scaring people with a wolf. 

Well as time continues to go by and Ben Scott's "net-Wolf" does not appear -- just like the villagers in the fable -- Internet users won't listen to them anymore. 

It will be a painful, but important lesson for Moveon.org/Savetheinternet to learn. Cry wolf too many times and no one will listen to you when you have something to say that's true.... 

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