Via Digg, telecommunications companies are working hard to explain how bad network neutrality is for consumers. Rather than using logic and a well-reasoned explanation, they try confusing the issue by making it sound like web based companies are the enemy in this fight.

While the mainstream media has a tendency to frame every argument as if it has two equally reasonable, yet polarized, positions, that's simply not the case in this battle over Internet communications.

Here is how the National Cable & Telecommunications Association is framing the debate with a current TV commercial:

A lot of confusion can be created in 30 seconds. Nothing makes my BS detector beep faster and louder than a commercial from a group representing telecoms that doesn't disclose what THEY have to gain from destroying network neutrality. Somehow, I doubt the National Cable & Telecommunications Association will be running that ad.

For a better explanation of what's really at stake, check out this video by Public Knowledge. Public Knowledge's funding comes from groups listed here.

Flipping back to the telecom side, here is a "grassroots" video made by NetCompetition, an organization funded by every major telecom.

I think the clearest explanation I've heard regarding what telecoms don't want you to know comes from Molly Wood of CNET in a spring episode of TWiT, starting at 1:50 in this video:

That nails it. Consumers pay for internet access today, and so do Internet based companies, like Google, Amazon, Vonage, etc. Bandwidth is paid for both coming and going by consumers and providers. ISPs are trying to create a third tier of service where they would prioritize what we can see and how fast certain web sites (or VoIP and other services) work based on made up tolls.

For a fifth and last perspective, let's turn to AskANinja:

Thanks, Ninja.

UPDATE: Okay, one more video. This one was launched yesterday by SaveTheInternet.com:

Apparently, it takes more time to educated people than mislead them based on the duration of the above videos.