Newsgroups: rec.video.cable-tv,misc.consumers,alt.cable-tv.re-regulate
Subject: Re: Cable TV Consumer Protection Act of 1992
From: jack@myamiga.mixcom.com (Jack Decker)
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 92 02:36:34 GMT
Organization: Northern Bytes BBS - Sault Ste. Marie, MI U.S.A.

In article <BuHK7K.9t3@cmptrc.lonestar.org> dated Sat, 12 Sep 1992 22:09:20
GMT, andy@cmptrc.lonestar.org (Andy Hart) wrote:

 >> Gee.  What does it take to get people to understand.  Give government
 >> the right to regulate cable tv and we ultimately give them the right
 >> to regulate its contents (as we already have with broadcast tv/radio).
 >> The hair on your neck should be standing on end and what is worse is
 >> that you have only yourself to thank.
 >> Call your congressperson and tell him/her to take an eleven and a half
 >> month vacation.  I call it damage control.

 >  Well, Jonathan, my point was that I didn't like the idea of the cable
 >  company deciding standards for what I should be watching.  What I
 >  *want* is choice.  I want to be able to pick and choose.  If I don't
 >  like my cable company, I want the choice available to me to take my
 >  business elsewhere, and not simply do without.

Andy, without geting into the "no win" debate about whether government should
uphold some moral standards (I believe it must, but I realize many who haven't
thought it through don't agree), let me just throw this thought at you.  Let's
say the cable company puts some unscrambled soft porn on the cable.  This will
cause some folks (like me) to drop their cable service, because I have children
in the house and don't particularly want them tuning across some couple making
love in the nude while flipping through the channels (if you don't see what the
problem is with that, wait until you have kids of your own).  If enough folks
like me cancel their cable service, the cable company will use that as
justification to raise rates even further.

I realize that advocating a modicum of censorship in this group is like
advocating motorcycle helmet laws at a biker's convention, but I do feel that
our country has to regain some of our moral underpinnings (or become a
third-rate nation) and that the constant diet of violence and sex shown on some
cable channels is desensitizing us as a nation.  If you ever have a violent
crime committed against you, or some member of your family, there's a pretty
good chance that the perpetrator got the idea (or at least the urge) from
watching some sleazy movie, quite possibly on cable TV.

Remember that on most cable systems, what gets piped into your home also gets
piped into mine (if we're served by the same system) and there are some forms
of "entertainment" that I simply do not wish to have available in my home.  In
fact, I would even find it objectionable that part of my monthly cable bill
would go to subsidize such channels, when I never watch them and don't really
want them to exist.  And that is part of the problem with cable as it is
currently structured... we have to take only the channels the cable company
chooses to offer, and then we are forced to pay for all of those channels
whether we want them or not.  I wish there were a system where we could, say,
pick any 20 channels from a list of 50 and receive (and pay for) ONLY those
channels.  I realize that's not technically feasible at this time, but it would
be fairer since you'd only be paying for those channels you really want, and
not subsidizing channels you don't give a hoot about (or totally disapprove
of).

I realize the socialists in the crowd are probably tilting already, but just
remember that folks like me have the option to NOT take cable service
(fortunately, it's not a government service for which we are taxed... yet...)
so you can't force us to pay for obscene programming (unless, of course, it's
on PBS, and we're working on that!).  :-)

Jack (who is only VERY slightly more liberal than Rush Limbaugh, and does not
apologize for it!  :-)  Flames to nul@nul...)

Jack Decker                               | No, I don't own an Amiga; I just
Internet address: jack@myamiga.mixcom.com | get Internet mail via a gateway
Fidonet address:  1:154/8                 | system that runs on an Amiga.
Newsgroups: rec.video.cable-tv,misc.consumers,alt.cable-tv.re-regulate