Friday, December 29, 2006

Propaganda in My Inbox

Posted By on Fri, Dec 29, 2006 at 6:56 PM

My ex and I both received the following e-mail from a group (InnovateTucson.org) funded by Cox Communications:

"We think it is unfortunate that the City set the public comment period for the two weeks before and during the Christmas holiday. But this is the last opportunity that you have to tell the City of Tucson that their cable study ought to conclude that:

1. Your City cable taxes are too high and it is unfair that Cox customers in Tucson pay higher cable taxes than Comcast customers in Tucson.

2. The City of Tucson does not need four times as many local access channels (PEG channels) as any other city, town, or county in southern Arizona nor does it need twice as many as Phoenix.

3. Cox customers in Tucson would rather have more high-definition channels and entertainment-on-demand than an excessive number of local access channels (PEG channels) that very few people watch."

The e-mail asks us to go to the city of Tucson's Web site and make the case for poor, unfortunate Cox Communications. I have a number of problems with Cox doing this. Above all, however, is the fact that I never signed up for these e-mails, and although I can't be sure, I bet they were sent to every Cox high-speed Internet customer in Tucson. Their attempt to influence the debate by sending unsolicited propaganda to subscribers seems unfair.