Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!pacbell.com!lll-winken!telecom-request From: lars@spectrum.cmc.com (Lars Poulsen) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: PBS Pledge Drive for March, 1991 Message-ID: Date: 21 Mar 91 04:55:33 GMT Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Organization: Rockwell CMC Lines: 36 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 225, Message 10 of 12 > [Moderator's Note: Illinois Bell has always been very generous with > their corporate profits. They support programming on WTTW Channel 11 > here (public television). They support a variety of artistic things > and special cultural events as well. PAT] Isn't this financially considered advertising, and isn't advertising a legitimate rate base expense? If the answer is yes and yes, then this is not at all generous, but a backdoor way to BOOST profits. I really don't know much about utility regulation, but I am very suspicious of corporate generosity. Lars Poulsen, SMTS Software Engineer CMC Rockwell lars@CMC.COM [Moderator's Note: I am not suspicious of 'corporate generosity' at all. In IBT's case, they do specific advertising in the print media as well as television and radio, but they also engage in a variety of philanthropic acts with little or no mention. During the 1960's when Martin Luther King visited Chicago on several occassions, I noted that when he would speak at the Chicago Temple Auditorium the program given out would always contain a single line note that "Dr. King's expenses during his visit in Chicago have been met with a gift from Illinois Bell Telephone Company." They give money now to an AIDS hospice here, and a variety of other civic endeavors. For a couple years, they sponsored the noon-time seminars / lectures produced by TRUST (To Restore Urban Systems Together), a think-tank here working on getting Chicago together once again. The only public mention would be a note in the program material saying the lecture was being given on the Illinois Bell charitable trust to benefit the community. I think you are holding a cynical viewpoint. Corporations can be and frequently are good citizens in their community. Have you any idea how many millions of dollars AT&T has given away to the performing arts and small neighborhood social service organizations? ... Millions. PAT]