Anti-WiFi "Sock Puppets of Industry"

Glenn Fleishman has done a neat job of identifying some of the leading groups and individuals that are trying to stop U.S. municipalities from setting up wireless internet systems, such as the Heartland Institute and the New Millennium Research Council, "a sock puppet for the incumbent telecommunications interests" that don't want municipalities to compete with their own private, for-profit services. According to tech columnist Dan Gillmor, the anti-WiFi campaign is yet another example of the "ongoing scandal" of "lack of transparency in the world of opinion-making. ... What we have today is a system of opinion laundering, where powerful interests try to create public support for their side of issues without disclosing the hidden agendas."