Leading Critic of Community Network in NC Revealed to Be TWC Employee

It will come as no surprise to those familiar with this space that the leading critic of MI-Connection, a cable network in North Carolina owned by local governments, has been revealed to be an employee of Time Warner Cable. Hat tip to Stop the Cap! for bringing it to our attention last night. We have long watched massive cable/phone companies flood public meetings (both honestly and surreptitiously) with their employees to give the perception of widespread opposition to a publicly owned network. So while this is nothing new, the practice must be highlighted as something community networks should be aware of -- much like the rampant abuse of the commenting system in the Salisbury Post, where any story that mentions the community fiber network Fibrant is slammed by a few people who post under many different identities to give the impression of widespread disapproval. MI-Connection has been plagued by problems since buying a system that was in considerably worse shape than expected, thus requiring more capital to rehab and upgrade it. An additional problem has been the image damage done by relentless critics (noted last week):

Venzon [Chairman of Board for MI-Connection] said he’s frustrated because the publicly owned company still fights an image problem. “With the improvements we made to the system, I thought that people would be lined up out the door,” Venzon said. “I thought they’d see this as ours, this is us, and it just bugs me that we get such poor PR out there. We have not won that battle.

And now we know that a major critic of the network works for Time Warner Cable, a company vociferously opposes muni networks as a threat to their de facto monopoly. It would not be as much of a story though if he hadn't denied his employment with TWC for so long in order for his attacks on the publicly owned network to be more effective.

MI-Connection board chair John Venzon posted the information in a comment on this website Friday. He said Mr. Stevens “has been active in using our publicly available information to turn our potential customers against us and to stir up fear, uncertainty and doubt about MI-Connection while hiding his motives. He does not live in our town or service area, so he does not ‘have a dog in the fight’ unless you consider who signs his paycheck. Could I attend competitors’ regular board meetings to see what they are doing?” Mr. Venzon asked in the comment. Mr. Venzon also noted that Mr. Stevens has used the state’s open records law, or Freedom of Information Act, to obtain copies of “every communication between the towns, the board and management. So Time Warner does in fact sit in our meetings.” Under North Carolina Law, those records are open, and the towns have known since they bought the system in 2007 that they had to operate under public scrutiny in a way their private competitors did not. Mr. Venzon acknowledged that, but said he’s unhappy about having a Time Warner employee following the company so closely. “In corporate America, this would constitute espionage. In our situation, it is free and legal. I find it deplorable,” he wrote. … Does it matter that Mr. Stevens is a Time Warner Cable employee? As editor of DavidsonNews.net, it concerns me that Mr. Stevens hasn’t acknowledged his employment when we’ve asked, or when he has commented regularly on this site about MI-Connection.

Stop the Cap! sums it up well:

Indeed, Stevens’ efforts to hide his employer’s identity and his subsequent decision to bring his blog down after the cat was let out of the bag suggests there is nothing for Stevens or Time Warner Cable to be proud of in their relentless, often sneaky efforts to bring community-owned competition to its knees.  When it comes to protecting duopoly profits of local cable and phone companies in North Carolina, it’s total war on all fronts.

Time Warner Cable may claim that they have no say in what employees do in their spare time, but they keep very close tabs on these networks and absolutely knew that he was leading a fight against another community's network while lying about his motives and employment. TWC regularly labelled MI-Connection a "failure" in its efforts to pass a bill that would preempt local authority to invest in networks that could compete with TWC services. This entire fiasco serves as a reminder of the massive disadvantages communities have in building their own networks. Companies like Time Warner Cable, which measure their revenue in the tens of billions, have effectively unlimited resources to attack communities who build their own networks. Big companies attack communities in the courts, legislatures, and the media -- while communities have little power to respond in any of those venues (communities don't have the funds to fight in the Legislature or the media and struggle to justify expensive, prolonged court fights). This is the reality in every state. And in places like North Carolina, it could get a lot worse if the Governor allows h 129 to become law. It is on her desk now and whether she signs it or lets it pass by doing nothing, big companies like Time Warner Cable will have even more advantages while communities will effectively be barred from building their own networks.