The AT&T announcement said:

“AT&T knows Wi-Fi is hot, and free Wi-Fi even hotter, which is why we are proud to offer iPhone customers free access to the nation’s largest Wi-Fi hot-spot network with more than 17,000 hot spots, including Starbucks. Now users can relax and access music, e-mail, and Web browsing services with their favorite blend in hand from the comfort of their favorite location.”

It was not true … not a word of it … even though the announcement stayed on the company’s Web site for weeks. What’s more, no one at AT&T is accepting responsibility for the lie.

The lie was compounded when an AT&T spokesman told CNET News, “We have not made any announcement regarding free Wi-Fi and iPhone. The webpage was posted in error and is being removed.”

Who vets the content on the AT&T website? Clearly, AT&T is a company where no one is accountable.

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There is a proliferation of blogs devoted to finding out and revealing secrets about companies and organizations. MacRumors is one that is devoted to trading gossip, rumors and facts about Apple, the notoriously secretive computer company. Apple inspires considerable speculation in the technology industry because of penchant … some call it, obsession … for secrecy. For Dr. Kim, reporting on Apple’s secrets translates to a large following and a six-figure income.

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So, it was in that context that I saw this troublesome story in today’s New York Times under the headline, “U.S. Is in No Shape to Give Advice, Medvedev Says.”  Regardless of what you or I might think of him, Russia’s new president, Dmitri Medvedev, pulled no punches when he told reporters, “that an America in ‘essentially a depression’ was in no position to lecture other countries.”

His comments were made on the same day that our President told the American people that if they had a problem with the price of gasoline, write their congressmen to open up new oil exploration … a suggestion that would take years before the first drop of oil was produced.

There is growing talk here in Washington, too, about the “D” word that no one wants to say aloud.

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Yesterday, for example, while picking up dry cleaning from the shop we use in McLean, Virginia, the shop owner, her employees, people outside on the sidewalk and I were interrupted by a man with an extremely loud voice who had parked his enormous black SUV not in a normal parking space but in the middle of the parking lot, to bring in his laundry. The fact that he apparently felt he was so self-important and hence, could park anywhere he pleased, blocking other cars, didn’t seem to bother him. Heck, he was Terry McAuliffe, who until recently was chief campaign fundraiser for Hillary Clinton.  He’s a guy who has gotten rich from raising money for political campaigns.  I got the impression that he was loud because he wanted everyone to look him, the self-perceived center of importance … part of his mojo. Reminded me of a kid I knew in high school.

You see that sort of hubris a lot in Washington.  None of it is focused on how to make America better, safer or aimed on critically needed nation-building, as Tom Friedman wrote about in today’s New York Times.

The little display by McAuliffe, whose deafening speaking tone I believe is normal, is indicative of the blind arrogance that has infected our nation’s capital, fed by money, greed and power.  Multiply that many times over, and I believe it’s one of the reasons that nothing really gets accomplished in Washington, except to make the players richer.  But what really is happening is that it is ultimately making the United States less than respected and less influential on the world stage.

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Fear is not a new method of controlling the public.  When I was a kid, it was the fear of nuclear attack, from either the Soviets or Martians.  We’d get under our school desks in “duck and cover” drills.

For the last seven years, America has been governed by a White House that has skillfully made manipulation of public opinion through fear into a dark and terribly destructive art form.

Fox News was among the first to use TV news to market fear in order to build ratings and enhance advertising revenue stream. Then, the other cable channels, TV networks and local stations piled on the fear bandwagon.

We hear of law enforcement agencies over-reacting out of fear, perhaps of the sky falling.

Now, because a few people possibly became ill from salmonella from tomatoes, Five Guys, the chain of burger joints, is among restaurants that have stopped serving tomatoes, maybe for good, for fear of … something.

Good grief! What about, as an alternative, seeking confirmed safer sources (and higher quality) of tomatoes and washing them in mild organic soap and warm water?

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Here’s a clue that Dell’s blog is not engendering great support - the miniscule number of comments. Corporate blogs that are successful focus on creating a transparent, interactive online environment. Dell, on the other hand, appears to be using its blog as another advertising platform to push corporate sales fluff.

Here are eight tips to successful corporate blogs:

1. Ask “why” - Why do you want to have a corporate blog? What’s the real purpose, the objective? If it’s to sell, advertise or overtly promote, go buy an ad. The objective of a CEO or corporate blog should be to engage customers/clients in an online discussion, no-holds-barred. If a company has a damaged brand image or reputation, a corporate blog is a good way to give unhappy customers a voice and hopefully win new friends.
2. Post often - get to the point - be brief - invite comments. No one will bother to read long-winded corporate jabber. Make it clear that you want to hear what people really think, especially if they don’t agree.
3. Develop a thick skin. If a corporate blog is genuinely successful, it needs to be a forum for anyone to express any opinion about the company, profanity excluded.
4. Be responsive. A key is to engage customers in a conversation in the Comment section of a blog posting. Actively converse. Praise an open discussion. Deliver solutions that make them happy.
5. Develop a personality. It’s okay for a group of professionals or corporate leaders to collaborate on a blog but show their pictures and a little about them on a page of the blog.
6. Create a scorecard. Use the blog to measure improvement in corporate image. Develop a simple method for customers to grade how good you are at responsiveness and finding quick solutions.
7. Few CEOs have any business having a blog. In my opinion, if a CEO has time to actively blog, he or she is not spending enough time doing their job. Besides, in most cases, the CEO is not the person who is really maintaining the CEO blog, and, guess what? We all know that, and it detracts from credibility.
8. Promote a corporate blog only AFTER it starts building traction and a following, not before.

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You may be recall that ex-CBS News anchorman Dan Rather joined HDNet, and Rather today is doing some of his best work there.  The spectrum of high definition TV channels that comprise the HDNet networks is available on nearly every cable system in America except … Comcast.

Visit HDNet’s Web site, and there is a page that says, “Comcast has chosen not to make HDNet and HDNet Movies available …”

I asked a Comcast representative for comment, and he could offer no explanation about why HDNet is not carried by Comcast. I have exchanged emails with Mark Cuban, Founder and owner of HDNet, and he wrote, “I can’t figure out why they won’t carry us.”

One thing is for sure — an enormous slice of the U.S. population that’s served today by Comcast cable TV is being denied outstanding news, sports and entertainment programming from HDNet.

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