George takes a swipe at Big Bird

[€uroMeinke]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

Regardless of whether CPB is funding specific content, the channel still exists and is equally accessible.

But is it really? It seems to me that Rupert Murdock or the Walt Disney Corporation has more access than I do? How do I get my channel?

[Alex]

On the personal level, your ability to have an idea and get it distributed globally is greater now than it has ever been in history and this is fully independent of whether CPB gets funded.

Now, if you want to talk about distributing your idea over the specific channels of broadcast television or broadcast radio access to the channel is no different whether you have one megacorporation or hundreds of small ones. But government assurances of publicly accessible sections of the broadband does not happen through funding of CPB but through regulation by the FCC.

[€uroMeinke]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

Now, if you want to talk about distributing your idea over the specific channels of broadcast television or broadcast radio access to the channel is no different whether you have one megacorporation or hundreds of small ones. But government assurances of publicly accessible sections of the broadband does not happen through funding of CPB but through regulation by the FCC.

Cool, so give me my channel, and I'll yield on CPB

[Alex]

I don't see what they have to do with each other. Nor do I see why you should be given a TV channel. You have the same access to one as everybody else.

[€uroMeinke]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

I don't see what they have to do with each other. Nor do I see why you should be given a TV channel. You have the same access to one as everybody else.

I thought you were the one who linked the CPBs creation being a reaction to the limited selection of the 3 networks? I'm just saying I don't see much change as far as the broadcast spectrum goes.

Isn't that the tit for tat way government funding goes? At least I get to listen to NPR - no one's offered me a ride on a B2 yet and I think I paid way more for that thing.

As long as there are special interests, I want mine represented and pandered to. The rest of you libertarians can refund the governemnt your particular subsidy.

[Alex]

Yes, and CPB no longer does the infrastructural and channel management stuff it used to. Now it is almost purely a tool for content subsidization.

Also, the number of pipelines has so broadly increased as to make the physical limitations of the broadcast spectrum mostly meaningless.

Hell, Mousepod half a dozen friends are essentially running their own small radio stations (illegally due to copyright infringement) and mousepod is creating his own radio show and distributing them to a potentially global audience without relying on access to limited broadcast frequency.

I'll point wendybeth to your post when next she complains about bridges to nowhere.