[jbooth]

Almost without exception? That's a bold claim.

How many local governments have you served in or had any interaction with while they were negotiating their cable operating agreement? Just curious.

I served in one. Negotiated two of these contracts, a re-up with Comcast and a new one with Verizon for FiOS. We weren't corrupt. And I publicly supported the idea of a state wide cable franchise, right up until the moment that the telco lobbyists started crapping it up with a bunch of unacceptable terms (the bill eventually died).

Local officials generally don't get into it for the money, and there's no easy way for a national telco to give a local official a backhander without it being straight-up bribery. It's not a "favors" thing like with towing contracts or something like that.