The Department of Commerce granted more than $28 million to an entity called One Economy, which has in turn spent some of the money on a Web-based show called, "Diary of a Single Mom," according to report in The Washington Times.
One Economy is using more than $1.5 million of that money to create the Web show, which co-stars Billy Dee Williams, and is produced by actor Robert Townsend's company Townsend Entertainment. The group claims the show will offer an incentive for people to connect to the Internet. Taxpayer watchdogs disagree.
"The point of broadband was to create access and create the infrastructure for communities that do not have access," said Ryan Alexander, president of the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense. "Creating content wouldn't be what people in Congress thought of when voting on this."
David Saunier, president of One Economy, told the publication that the groups spends most of the grant money on wiring people to the Internet and educating them about broadband access. He added that a portion of the grant, which he estimated at between $1.5 million and $2 million, helps produce the sort of programming not available in mainstream media.
For more:
- see this article from The Washington Times
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