Representatives of think tanks and public interest groups gave st...

tank.” PFF and kindred groups “need to have personal integrity and be willing to lose support” from financial backers to guard against moving from a “free market think tank to a corporatist think tank,” Gifford said. PFF occasionally has alienated supporters on specific issues, he said. Kenneth DeGraff, Consumers Union policy analyst, said CU is mainly subscriber-funded and, while not taking corporate money, will work on specific projects with corporations that share CU’s views. DeGraff said he likes the flexibility of working with Verizon one day and “blasting” the firm another. Andrew Schwartzman, Media Access Project exec. dir., said MAP is foundation-funded. Jerry Ellig, senior research fellow at George Mason U.’s Mercatus Center, said Mercatus separates its fund-raising and research; most funds come from individuals and foundations rather than corporations. Panelists described how they gauge their policy debate success. Emergence of “a diversity of perspectives” is a merit badge, especially if “agency proclivities can be altered by the record,” in other words where agencies or individuals with known positions on an issue “go the other way based on the merits,” Schwartzmann said. Ellig said success is when “decision makers are making better decisions because of what we've done.” That could happen when policy makers “think through issues differently” or “do something differently,” Ellig said. DeGraff said “getting our views out” and reflected in FCC orders and congressional actions is the ultimate success. “Success is if decision makers are treating issues as if ideas matter,” said Gifford. Asked if they strongly disagreed on specific issues, DeGraff criticized PFF for not backing municipal broadband and network neutrality. Gifford said both are “bad ideas.” He said studies show “no municipal broadband play is able to cover its costs” while at the same time such efforts drive off private capital. Network neutrality can do “long-term damage to the broadband converged future,” he warned. Perhaps good in a monopoly situation, amid competition it can discourage bundling, Gifford said. For example, it could discourage the offering of a family- oriented broadband package that blocks objectionable web sites, he said.