From: wendyt@tera.com (Wendy Thrash)
Subject: Re: Cable Access (was Re: Tell Viacom Cable to
Reply-To: wendyt@tera.com
Organization: Tera Computer Company, Seattle, WA
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 04:32:18 GMT

In article 92Sep29091610@romulus.reed.edu, merlyn@ora.com (Randal L. Schwartz) writes (in reply to me):
>
>If your "local access" channel is anything like anywhere else in the
>country, I suspect that you don't watch it long enough to notice that
>there are gems buried among the trash.

Dear, dear Randal.  You should not make too many assumptions about my behavior.
There are a few gems.  I remember one hilarious interview with Dos Fallopia
and the world's most uninspiring interviewer.  Great stuff.  There are also
gems on commercial TV.  Where would the world be without "Studs"?

>Remember that cable access is material produced by unpaid
>lightly-trained members of your community who felt strongly enough
>about saying something that they took the time to go through the
>minimal classes and potential criticism to do it anyway.

That makes them dedicated.  It does not necessarily make their product
worth watching.  I was a lightly-trained engineer when I ran a radio board
twenty-five years ago, but at least you could hear the sound.  (Of course,
I did once play the National Anthem at the wrong speed, but only once.)
If you hang around a university, you'll hear all sorts of peopole who feel
strongly enough about saying something that they take the time to go harangue
people on campus, face potential criticism, etc.  I don't invite them to
come home with me, if you get my drift.


> To compare
>this opportunity for protection of your first amendment rights with
>the commercial trash that's out there is unfair to the thousands of
>volunteers at the hundreds of cable access centers across the country.

Comparing trash with trash seems like apples with apples to me.  Commercial
TV gives me glitzy trash; public access gives me muddled trash.  At least
on the commercial channels I can see the pictures and hear the words.
What are some of the highlights of our public-access channel?  Let's see . . .
most of the programming is religious.  Big deal.  Still, it's not everywhere
you can see "Gays for Jesus" or the 300-pound transsexual minister whats-her-
name I used to watch now and then.  And commercial TV will never bring me
the female minister with the astonishingly bad singing voice and her equally
inept partners in atonality, who send me to the remote control faster than
Geraldo.  Politics?  You want politics?  Sure.  I get free access to LaRouche
on Channel 29.  This works wonders for my disposition.  Libertarians show up,
too, but I get my Libertarian vitamins on the net.


>I suppose you would rather continue viewing slick, high-budget
>propoganda (disguised as sitcoms and "news") pushed on us by the 100
>american corporations that buy 75% of the advertising time?

There you go again, personalizing this thing as if you were an ad for the
Readers' Digest Sweepstakes:  "You, <enter name here> would rather continue
viewing slick . . ."  Have I already won?  Let's examine my choices:
Slick, high-budget propaganda disguised as sitcoms and "news" vs. dull,
low-budget propaganda, undisguised.  Tough choice.

>Cable access... use it or lose it.  It's your chance to say what you
>want about what you want and get it out to the community without
>worrying about what censors or sponsors will limit for you.

Funny, I thought that was Usenet.

>(Yes, I'm biased.  I'm chairman of the board of Tualatin Valley
>Community Access, providing 9 channels of public, educational, and
>government access to 65,000 subscribers in Oregon.  And I vote. :-)

For all I know, your 9 channels of Community Access may be great stuff.
Our one channel could use your advice.  Or mine, I suppose, but I'd just
as soon see the Sci-Fi Channel.  Fortunately for my (ahem) freedom of
speech, Public Access seems to be here to stay.  By law, as I recall?
(Of course, it could be argued that Viacom and other cable companies are
giving inadequate support to public access precisely so it will eventually
go away.  Dunno.)

At any rate, remember: it's best not to criticize a woman's opinions until
you've viewed a thousand fuzzy shows on her public access channel.
---
-Wendy T., channel surfer