AT&T Quickly Ditches Pledge Not To Fund Congressional Insurrectionists
from the see-no-evil dept
Much like the company’s dedication to women, AT&T’s dedication to not funding people eager to overthrow democracy appears to be somewhere between inconsistent and nonexistent. Shortly after January 6 a number of companies, including telecom giants like AT&T, publicly crowed about how they’d be ceasing all funding to politicians that supported the attack on the Capitol and the overturning of, you know, fucking democracy. Of course that promise was never worth all that much, given the the umbrella lobbying orgs companies like AT&T used never really stopped financing terrible people.
Initially, AT&T made a big stink about how it had suspended funding to all 147 Republicans who voted to overturn the 2020 election. But not only did AT&T not actually suspend funding via its numerous policy and lobbying tendrils, it didn’t even really ever stop funding insurrectionists directly:
“In February, however, AT&T donated $5,000 to the House Conservatives Fund. The chair of the House Conservatives Fund is Jim Banks (R-IN), who objected to the certification of the Electoral College in January. Banks also signed an amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court supporting Texas’ efforts to throw out the election results in several states.”
Back in March, when news outlets like the Dallas News pressed AT&T on why it was still funding insurrectionists, the company offered up some convoluted gibberish about how it was more ethically policing its PAC spending:
“We have been assured that none of the employee PAC?s contributions will go toward the reelection of any of those members of Congress,? Balmoris said. ?Any future contributions to multi-candidate PACs will require such consistency with the policy suspending individual contributions.”
Six months later, when a reporter tries to press AT&T on the fact it continues to fund insurrectionists, it just goes radio silent:
“Six months later, AT&T is charting a very different path. In August, new FEC disclosures reveal, AT&T donated $15,000 each to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC). These donations will support the reelection of every Republican objector running for reelection. Popular Information contacted AT&T and asked whether, as it had pledged in March, it had secured a commitment that none of the funds it donated to the NRCC or NRSC would support Republican objectors. This time, the company did not respond.”
In short, AT&T funded a bunch of politicians who filled the public’s head with propaganda and bullshit, resulting in a violent if clumsy attempt to steal an election. Now AT&T doesn’t want to talk about it, and hopes that if it stays quiet about it, the storm will pass. And they’re probably right, given the broader press’ ongoing tendency to normalize what happened earlier this year (largely because they don’t want to offend leak sources and advertisers). Which, of course, all but guarantees that, sooner or later, the same bullshit is going to play out all over again, potentially with more calamitous results.
Filed Under: congress, insurrection, political funding, politics, promises
Companies: at&t
Comments on “AT&T Quickly Ditches Pledge Not To Fund Congressional Insurrectionists”
Look not at what someone says but what they do
AT&T: Oh no no no, when we said we’d stop funding insurrectionists we meant for that particular day, largely because the payments had already gone though by the time we said that. We never meant that we had any objections to violent insurrection and/or attempts to overthrow democracy in general or that we’d ever stop funding supporters of both of those as if we did that then who’d keep passing the laws and regulations we write?
"I mean, let’s face it – it’s not as though our actions have ever had any meaningful consequences, or even a slap on the wrist with a wet noodle. So why would you start now? Why would we start changing now?" – AT&T
AT&T and almost every Republican and conservative suffers from anterograde amnesia… or pretends to.
"January 6th…? What January 6th?"
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It was a peaceful protest, not so different from an ordinary Capitol tour, and also an antifa false flag.
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like the rest of the USA broadband companies, run by a bunch of self-serving assholes! wouldn’t piss on any of them if they were on fire!!
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The big broadband ISPs, at least. There are great mom-and-pop broadband ISPs if you know where to look (like in Chattanooga, TN or Boise, ID).
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Beware. Big Telecom is not above physically destroying such mom-and-pop broadband ISPs.
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Wow, they were not even remotely subtle there. ‘Oops, we accidentally cut another of your wires, if only someone had properly marked them so we knew where we shouldn’t dig…’
See? Capitalist dictatorship.
A nation of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations.
Had they overthrown the government ATT wouldn’t have cared, as long as they got to keep their monopolies & handouts.
We can’t ditch ATT in protest, they have captive markets.
Politicians who can secure funding get prime job assignments, even if they are borderline mentally challenged & disconnected from reality, and magically they find a way to benefit the biggest donors.
All of this is ignored because stopping the destruction of the nation takes a backseat to making sure abortion is illegal, those brown people get thrown out of the country, and we put god back into the nation despite it having been left out on purpose.
The facts came out
One that the Capital surveillance tapes have been released: we see publicly what many have said all along. Nope, no big insurrection.
The vast majority, the 99%, the all but a handful… just a peaceful protest.
They were allowed in. And then left with no violence.
That a dozen people got together and attempted to penetrate the inner building has no relation to the majority who walked in, again with full permission to do so. Hang out, chanted, and then left when told to.
Seeing how this wasn’t the fictional insurrectionist riot the primary media parented it to be: there’s no reason to be concerned from a corporate stand point.