Salisbury's Fibrant Plans Beta Test, Senator Hoyle Admits Time Warner Wrote Bill to Stop It

A local news story from WCNC in North Carolina has caught national attention among some tech news sites. As reported by WCNC, Fibrant will start beta testing its community fiber network next month (which answers a question we have been wondering -- just what is happening down there?). We have covered Salisbury previously here. The video: This video is no longer available. Senator Hoyle still relies on his two mutually exclusive talking points: "cities should not do this because they are terrible at it" and "it is not fair for cities to do this because they will crush private providers who are unable to compete." Of course, if cities really did fail at this with any sort of regularity, they would not pose a threat to private providers. But that is not what caught the interest of Ars Technica, Tech Dirt, and DSL Reports. This is:
When the I-Team asked him if the cable industry drew up the bill, Senator Hoyle responded, "Yes, along with my help." When asked about criticism that he was "carrying water" for the cable companies, Hoyle replied, "I've carried more water than Gunga Din for the business community - the people who pay the taxes."
Big companies like Time Warner employ a lot of smart accountants to avoid paying even their fair share of taxes -- perhaps Senator Hoyle should not confuse them with the many small businesses that do pay their share. From Ars Technica's "Who writes pro-cable Internet legislation? Cable does":
Yikes. In Hoyle's defense, this sort of practice is not uncommon—legislators often work with interest groups on particular pieces of legislation or on letters that go out under their name. But letting those who stand to benefit financially sit down and actually draft the bill protecting their interests, then bragging about how you carry more water for them "than Gunga Din"—well, you don't see that nearly as much.
It will be interesting to see who carries water for Time Warner next now that Senator Hoyle is retiring. Let's hope that Hoyle's honesty actually makes it more difficult for other Senators to sell out their citizens for massive corporations.