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Maybe there's a better name for the practice of push polling. Maybe it should be called, "Fraudulently, deceptively and systematically planting damaging misinformation." On the other hand, considering one slang meaning of "push," maybe not.

The opponents of Lafayette, Louisiana's municipal FTTH project (BellSouth and Cox -- the incumbent telco and cableco) have sunk to push polling. It is not the first time that incumbent-backed anti-muni efforts have slithered in such slimy disinfo; a 2004 push poll in the Illinois tri-cities region asked,

"Would a government broadband invade privacy and allow the government to listen to your telephone conversations, monitor the Internet sites you visit and know what cable shows you watch?"

and

"Should tax money be allowed to provide pornographic movies for residents?"

The dirty tricks worked in Illinois. The tri-cities muni broadband effort was defeated.

In Lafayette, the incumbents have forced an unfair election, an election based on technicalities of Louisiana's municipal bond laws, an election in which the pro-muni fiber forces are severely restricted from spending money while the opponents of muni fiber can spend millions.

But that's not enough -- now they're push polling too. According to this article in the local paper

The pollster asked [one Lafayette citizen] if he thought LUS should be competing with private businesses, if he thought homeowners should pay for businesses to have fiber access and if he knew that LUS cannot guarantee rates while Cox and BellSouth can. "Everything was negative about LUS and positive about Cox and BellSouth," [the citizen] said. "It was just a paid political announcement pushing you to think LUS is bad and everybody else is good. It's not fair marketing, and I told the lady she should be ashamed."

The article continued

[Another Lafayette citizen reported that t]he pollster said because of the constitutional separation of church and state, a judge may rule that LUS cannot provide religious programming over its fiber . . . [he reported that] the pollster also said "that since LUS rations water, how would you feel about receiving cable only a few days a week . . . I couldn't finish. I was laughing too hard toward the end," he said. "It was interesting all the different angles they played, like if they asked enough questions and played enough angles they were bound to get something you're angry with the city about."

One citizen found the poll ludicrous; how many others were taken in?

The Lafayette muni fiber project has been endorsed by the Louisiana Conference of Mayors, the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce, Lafayette Coming Together and the Citizen's Action Council. The last two are non-partisan neighborhood organizations.

A summary of articles on Lafayette's FTTH battle from The Daily Advertiser here.
There's more info at the Lafayette Pro-Fiber blog.
Lafayette's muni FTTH referendum will be held on July 16.

Thanks to Jim Baller and Esme Vos for staying on top of this story!

Technorati Tags: LafayetteLA, MunicipalNetworks, FTTH