TV4U? Not Me!

Franchise reform, if you don't have enough supporters, apparently you can just write their names in anyway:

At a Capitol press conference, several others leading the fight against the bill -- including former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin and communications professor Cynthia Laitman -- said their names also falsely showed up as supporters of the deregulation bill on petitions given lawmakers by TV4Us, the private group leading the ad and public relations push for the bill.

"I don't know how it happened," said Soglin, who said he has pushed for tight municipal controls and consumer protections over the cable TV industry since 1971. "AT&T gets very confused."

— Legislators seek probe of misuse of names, By Steven Walters, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, WEDNESDAY, July 11, 2007, 11:15 a.m.

How confused?

Not too confused to spend some money:

AT&T has hired 15 lobbyists, including former aides to governors from both political parties, to push the cable and video deregulation package. It would replace the 30-year-old system of local governments issuing cable TV licenses with state-issued, permanent franchises that would also phase out support for local-access education, government and public channels.

You know, if the duopoly spent as much time and money working on more access to faster speeds, we'd all be better off. Or if there were competition that did.

-jsq