The Big Lie isn’t called the Big Lie for nothing.  Its repeated endlessly by those receiving support from those the Big Lie favors.

It’s put before the public by organizations with comfy-sounding names, repeated endlessly in ads and columns and blog posts and tweets by groups and politicians – many of whom receive support from those the Big Lie favors.  Here’s the current case in point.  The government wants to takeover/control/regulate the Internet.

Who was responsible for this?  Start with Americans for Prosperity.  It’s hard to quibble with a name for a group like “Americans for Prosperity.”  After all, who doesn’t want Americans to be prosperous?  Therefore, it’s somewhat curious that a group that purports to have our well-being at heart is taking on the one institution that has been the greatest creator of wealth we have ever seen – the Internet.

To be fair, the group is itself fairly prosperous.  It announced the other day that it will spend the equivalent of a small public-interest group’s budget, $1.4 million, to buy TV ads in Pennsylvania, Hawaii, the Washington, D.C. area and on national cable.  But then AFP has all the right connections – big-time Republican lobbyist Grover Norquist, lots of conservative and corporate funding from the Koch family, a sister relationship with former House Majority Leader Dick Armey’s Freedom Works  and of course support from AT&T.  Yes, the former Citizens for a Sound Economy is doing pretty, pretty well financially.

Factually, however, AFP is pretty much bankrupt. As we’ve learned, bankruptcy loves company, so AFP is not the only one.  There are many people out there who can’t recognize what it is the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants to do to protect the Internet, and, more crucially, what it is that the FCC is actually doing.

The secret to the Big Lie, of course, is that if you repeat it sufficient times people will be accustomed to it and take it for truth.  It will develop a ring of “truthiness,” to use the Stephen Colbert formulation.

In this case, the Big Lie is that the FCC wants to “regulate the Internet.”  Sound familiar?  Everyone is singing from the same sheet. The AFP’s plea is to “Help Stop Washington’s Takeover of the Internet.” Glenn Beck talks about the FCC taking over every aspect of the Internet.  The Wall Street Journal said the FCC wants to “regulate the Web.”

Read More:   Public Knowledge