Here is yet another reason why I am a suspicious person:

(Snatched without permission from The Daily Advertiser in Louisiana)

BellSouth says it took part in survey
Claire Taylor

BellSouth is a co- sponsor with Cox Communications of a controversial telephone survey centered on a proposed Lafayette fiber project.

Lafayette BellSouth spokesman John Williams on Tuesday said as far as he knew, the company was not involved in the poll. On Thursday, Williams retracted, saying he has learned since that BellSouth is a co-sponsor with Cox.

“I was just unaware of it,” said Williams, who said he has not seen the poll questions.

Lafayette Utilities System is hoping to expand its telecommunications business, competing against Cox and BellSouth for cable TV, telephone and Internet customers. Both companies offer the services LUS plans to provide. LUS says it can offer more Internet bandwidth and the services at a lower price.

Voters in the city of Lafayette will go to the polls July 16 to decide whether to issue $125 million in bonds to pay for the fiber project.

Pollsters with Market Research Insight of Pensacola, Fla., launched the telephone survey Monday.

Tim Tippit, vice president of public affairs and government relations for Cox Communications, said the company was one of the poll sponsors. He said the company was simply “gathering more information on the citizens of Lafayette” and learning more about its customers.

Residents who received the calls reported the questions were slanted in favor of BellSouth and Cox and against LUS. The pollsters reportedly said things such as the separation of church and state may mean LUS cannot offer religious TV channels, or because LUS rations lawn watering during the summer, it might also offer Internet or TV only on certain days.

Originally published May 6, 2005

Here is my poll:

“Would you do business with BellSouth or Cox Communications if you knew they were paying people to deceptively influence a vote on an issue that would force them to compete more aggressively for a mid-sized city’s high-bandwidth service market?”

“If so, would you still do business with them if you knew their CEOs were, respectively, a convicted child molester and a devout Devil worshiper?”

“If so, would you still do business with them if you knew that BellSouth has a corporate policy dictating that they must dig up the corpse of your dead mother and gang-rape her, using any opening they find? What if you knew that Cox Communications has hired hitmen to murder every puppy in your home state?”