By Rodney Brown

Whatever side of the net neutrality debate you fall down on, you have to be able to recognize a bonehead when you see one.

I offer an example of such individuals — the executives at AT&T Inc., who think sending pre-fab letters opposing net neutrality to possibly non-existent organizations is a good lobbying scheme, and the people at those alleged groups who forget to take out the boilerplate AT&T allegedly wrote for them.

A number of websites and bloggers have pointed out a letter to the Federal Communications Commission from one supposed Arkansas Retired Seniors Coalition — good luck finding them on the web — that contains the following brilliantly boneheaded passage: “Access to a robust, reliable Internet has become an important component in the day-to-day lives of many seniors in Arkansas; consequently, the elderly community here is concerned about the proposed rule making on net neutrality. XYZ organization shares this concern.”

Aside from being another example of why proofreading is vital, the letter shows that this alleged grass-roots opposition to net neutrality is fake, a process known as “astroturfing” in the lobbying circles.

This is yet another example of how the major Internet connectivity providers like AT&T, Verizon Communications Inc., and Comcast Corp. desperately want to keep the new net neutrality regulations being proposed by the FCC from ever being enacted, but it is not the most troubling. According to online reports, Jim Cicconi, AT&T’s chief lobbyist, sent a memo around to AT&T employees encouraging them to send e-mail messages opposing the new rules from their home e-mail addresses.

Now what happens if any one of those employees who did not participate in that spam campaign gets fired, even for cause? How quickly will a lawyer be knocking on his or her door to encourage a wrongful dismissal suit? Aside from pulling a truly sleazy lobbying move, AT&T may have just put the gun to its own temple.