AT&T Grantees Lobby for T-Mobile Deal

At least two dozen nonprofit groups that have received funding from AT&T, from national organizations to local charities with a single employee, have weighed in publicly to support the communications giant’s proposed buyout of T-Mobile, according to Center for Public Integrity’s iWatch News.

In letters to the Federal Communications Commission and postings on a Web site set up by AT&T to promote the merger, charities ranging in size and scope from the American Foundation for the Blind to the Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission, in Louisiana, have called on regulators to approve the deal, which the Justice Department has sued to block.

Testimonials from small social-service charities tout the potential expansion of broadband Internet service to the needy.

Craig Holman of consumer watchdog group Public Citizen said the campaign is “taking influence peddling to a whole new level.” But officials with the charities say their support for the merger is unrelated to the AT&T donations.

“Their money that they gave was in no way connected with what we did,” said the Rev. R. Henry Martin, head of the Shreveport mission, which operates a clinic and homeless shelter. “We endorsed the merger because we think it’s a good thing for rural people.”