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from: Wall Street Journal

Stevens Embraces Telephone Poll

Pollsters hired by Verizon Communications Inc. presented a study today that suggests consumers overwhelming reject “net neutrality” Internet regulations but they support Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens’s voluminous bill that rewrites many of the nation’s communications laws.

That bill has stalled in the Senate, where Stevens hasn’t been able to pick up the 60 votes necessary to get floor time from Majority Leader Bill Frist. At a confirmation hearing last week, Stevens said net neutrality, or rules that would prevent telephone and cable companies from discriminating against Internet traffic, might kill the bill.

Today, Stevens’s committee staff eagerly distributed the Verizon-sponsored poll along with a news release headlined, “Bipartisan Poll Shows the Majority of Americans Favor Video Choice Over Onerous Net Neutrality Regulations.”

It’s not clear how ordinary Americans can express an informed opinion about the 287-page bill, which is so complex that the committee put together a dummies guide to it. –Amy Schatz
Read more: Congress, Business