resources+tips

“Series of tubes” is a phrase coined originally as an analogy by then-United States Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) to describe the Internet in the context of opposing network neutrality.[1] On June 28, 2006, he used this metaphor to criticize a proposed amendment to a committee bill. The amendment would have prohibited Internet service providers such as AT&T and Verizon Communications from charging fees to give some companies higher priority access to their networks or their customers. This metaphor has been widely ridiculed as demonstrating Stevens’s poor understanding of the Internet, despite the fact that he was in charge of regulating it.[2][3] ~ Wikipedia

In 2008, Stevens was indicted and convicted of failing to properly report gifts (this has nothing to do with the internet, but it’s interesting). He allegedly accepted $250,000 of home-improvement help from a contractor buddy.

After his conviction, some members of the Senate talked of having Stevens expelled. Throughout this time, Stevens maintained his innocence. But he lost the 2008 election so the point was moot.

A few months later, an FBI agent involved in the investigation of Stevens filed a whistleblower affidavit – the prosecution had withheld a fair amount of evidence that may have resulted in a verdict of “not guilty” if the jury had known about it. The trial judge called the prosecutor’s conduct “outrageous” and set aside the Stevens verdict.

In 2010, Stevens died in a plane crash north of Dillingham, Alaska.