Bells Want To Use DoubleClick Hearing As Bank Shot On Google

BELLS WANT TO USE DOUBLECLICK HEARING AS BANK SHOT ON GOOGLE
[SOURCE: Public Knowledge]
[Commentary] A Senate Subcommittee will hold a hearing Thursday on Google’s proposed $3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick, and what the deal would mean for the online advertising industry. This is a complex transaction, with lots of issues of market competition and privacy to be worked out. But one witness isn't coming to the hearing to fret about the ad market or the dangers to consumer privacy. He’s only coming to tarnish Google at the behest of other parties. Guess which ones? This is one of those moments that shows how tactics work here, uncovering the underbelly of powerful forces in play. Call this the Bank Shot. The idea is not to hit a target directly on an issue of interest, but to hit it via a less direct route. it’s in the Bell interest to attack Google on any front and impugn their credibility wherever they can. That way, when Google enters a debate on an issue of more central concern to the Bells, Google’s credibility, the Bells hope, will be diminished as they are criticized as hypocrites, or monopolists or some such. Enter Scott Cleland, who works for the Bells. Since 2006, he has run with the Bell talking points about Google, spending endless time criticizing them on his blog. Earlier this summer, he published a report slamming the Google purchase of DoubleClick, an area of economic research somewhat afield from his background in traditional telecom issues.
http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/1199