Free Speech Threatened By ATT!
ATT and Verizon are attempting an unprecidented step, the removal of Public, Education
and Government access from basic cable! Under limited supervision by a new state beuracracy ATT's new U-Verse product is trying
to relegate these vital communications services to an internet portal that is hard to find and even harder to use.
The net effect is to BURY PUBLIC ACCESS and thus render it irrelevant. Please do NOT
allow ATT to do this. Boycott this company and its subsidiaries as well as Verizon as they are limiting YOUR FREE SPEECH!
Here is more:
The Sacramento Bee printed an article entitled:
"Consumers win as more companies bundle cable. Internet and phone services".
http://www.sacbee.com/103/v-print/story/859309.html
This is an opportunity to flood the Bee with Letters to the Editor about the inferior treatment
planned for the PEG channels on the AT&T U-Verse system. Please read the Bee article and then respond in 200 words or
less with a letter...... this will help bring a spotlight to the issue and get the attention of CA. State Legislators.....
please help.
How about hearing from the other 19 States also impacted? Is U-Verse a good idea for PEG channels?
Let the Bee and their readers know....
Here's what I submitted:
thanks, ron cooper, Access Sacramento
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To Sacramento Bee: Re ATT's Attempt to Stifle Free Speech
AT&T's U-Verse has
neglected the seven cable community PEG channels Sacramento County has been proud of for the past twenty years. Where will
you find channels 7, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 20 on AT&T?
AT&T has assigned
these important local "voices" to an inferior web browser on channel 99. It violates the DIVCA State Law. AT&T's PEG channels
1- Do not have the same
channel numbers as cable for PEG channels.
2- Do not appear on the
basic service tier.
3 -Are not similar in
quality to commercial stations on the lowest cost tier.
4- Cannot transmit Emergency
Alert System (EAS) broadcast messages.
5- AT&T's PEG
channel functionality is not similar to commercial stations.
Why is this service inferior?
because subscribers are:
1. Unable to toggle between
commercial and PEG channels.
2. Unable to record a
PEG program automatically.
3. Hearing impaired are
unable to view PEG programming in closed captions.
4. Unable to view PEG
broadcasts in a secondary audio programming (SAP) format.
5. Cannot enter individual
PEG channel numbers in a remote control.
6. Unable to access PEG
channels seamlessly, i.e. it takes on average 30-90 seconds to load and access the desired channel (a 5-step process).
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| Other Countries Don't have Public Access...Don't Join them! |
Here Here to what Ron is saying,
and for those of you who do not know ATT is trying to
kill YOUR
community voice on cable.
If allowed, their new "cable" service, "U-Verse" would set a
precident that
takes Community Media (YOUR VOICE) off of the basic
tier and places it where effectively it can't be seen.
Again,
this precident, if unchallenged would allow others like
comcast, Charter, Cox and AOL to follow suit. The eventual result
would
be the complete disappearence of Public Voices on Cable Tv.
Don't allow it to happen! Write the Bee and your local
paper re this and look here below to join as a member. In coming days we'll
have more info there re. this horrible
state of events!
Marty
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| Let Your Voice be heard NOW! |
The cancellation of Channel 36
Policy debates and high school sports could soon fade to black. Patt Morrison May 1, 2008 It's
the channel you probably channel-surf right past on your way from Discovery to CNN. Its production values can look
a little ... lean. "Desperate Housewives" no doubt spends more on its backstage buffet line than it costs to operate this
little local channel for a whole year. Tonight, other cable channels will air something called "Britney's Secret Childhood"
and reruns of "Law & Order" and "Family Feud." Cable access Channel 36 will explore the future of Broadway downtown, and
what Proposition 98 means. On Friday, as you're flipping through the lineup looking for a pro baseball game, Channel 36 will
broadcast the local high school slugger-fest between Cleveland and Chatsworth. Fox lets you decide whether to vote for Syesha
or Brooke on "American Idol"; Channel 36 shows the debate between Bernard Parks and Mark Ridley-Thomas, so you can decide
who to vote for for L.A. County supervisor, a post that represents more people than do the senators from 14 U.S. states. Whoops
-- we interrupt this programming announcement for a de-programming announcement. Los Angeles is pulling the money plug. Unless
the City Council overrules the mayor's budget choices, come July 1, Channel 36 as we know it will go dark. Not
that there's much budget to cut. The 16 hours of programming a day, seven days a week -- school sports, public policy talks,
long-distance for-credit college classes and a lot of repeats if you missed anything the first time -- cost the city $555,000.
(Channel 36 raises another $320,000 itself, mostly from hiring out its production services.) That $555,000 comes from
cable TV companies, not taxpayers. Back in 1984, the city boldly demanded funding for public access channels as a condition
of handing out those rich, rich cable franchises. That show of nerve now generates $25 million a year. About $3 million
goes to Channel 36's more production-intense sister station, Channel 35. If some of the faces on 35 look familiar, it's because
they're often the mayor's or council members', in public meetings and on chatty shows about the work they're doing. They're
on so often that their political opponents have complained that Channel 35 is like one big, free campaign commercial. The
Monday morning that the mayor released his budget, Carla Carlini, the general manager of Channel 36, was nervous. The city
nearly whacked Channel 36 four years ago, and the city's red ink is a lot more crimson now. "I looked at it
online," she told me, "and literally froze." Her budget was zero. "I printed it out, I looked at it again -- at that point
I picked up the phone and called [the agency that supervises the channel] and said, 'Am I reading this correctly?' and they
said, 'Yes.' " Maybe that zero will turn out to be just a negotiating gambit as the budget gets hashed out. Or maybe
some bright boy or girl in the mayor's office figures, "Why do we need two TV stations? Maybe the mayor will notice that I
saved him half a million bucks and take me with him when he's governor." So why do we need two public
channels? It's the programming -- government doings on one, education and community events on the other. (Do you really think
politicians would cede their airtime to an urban issues lecture or an introductory film class?) Happenings that are
big news in smaller cities -- local political debates, performances at public theaters, prep sports -- get outshouted here
by fires and freeway chases and Hollywood. And yet those things are the stuff of community. With Channel 36,
high school jocks all over town can turn on their games and tell their families, "Look, I'm on TV" -- sometimes in neighborhoods
where the only other local guys on TV are doing a perp walk, and the only local sports coverage features a brawl at the all-star
game. I'd argue that televising prep sports and the rest are more valuable to community relations than mounting video
cameras on 30 police cars -- which is one thing Channel 36's $555,000 budget could pay for. I'm weary of the false way the
choice is always presented: "Which would you rather have, a TV channel, parks or libraries -- or more cops?" Sure, we can
always use more cops, but take that logic too far and L.A. becomes nothing more than an open-air cellblock with palm trees. If
anything can save Channel 36 in the last reel, it may be Councilman Bill Rosendahl's role on the budget committee. He hosted
an influential cable show for years and helped push the city and the cable companies into airing public interest programs.
The zeroing out, he told me, has left him upset, surprised and determined not to let it happen. "To give up a channel like
that is like giving up gold." There's none of that to spare, which is why we're in this muddle in the first place.
Tune in to Channel 35 today for the budget deliberations. Then check out Channel 36 -- while you still can. patt.morrison@latimes.comOne Response:
Friends....
does this sound like good government to you? City Council, yes - voices of the community silenced!! When does the word "censorship"
attach itself to budget decisions? Keep in mind, Channel 36 is actually an "educational channel", not public access. Due to
past budget cuts, the City Council achieved "content management" by forcing off any objectionable speakers - educational access
can select its programming, public access is a protected speech forum and must, by law, let all voices be heard.
The LA
Mayor could be the next Democratic Governor of the State. Did I sleep through the coup that eliminated the Bill of Rights?
With the closure of all cable run public access studios in SoCal by Time-Warner, 20 million people will soon have no televised
means to reach the many residents in the entertainment/media capital of the world.Â
Listen
to the silence - Channel 36 is the "canary in the coal mine". Who is next?
Ron Cooper,
Access Sacramento
www.AccessSacramento.org
Proudly,
Public Access for the Capitol of California
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