On Thu, Oct 19, 2006 at 04:53:39PM -0500, Todd Walton wrote:
> On 10/18/06, Lan Barnes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >Something to watch and perhaps record.
> >
> >PBS, 10/18, 9 PM
> >
> >http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/101706U.shtml
>
> I just got a TV and cable television. It hurts. So, on this
> notification, I decided to watch Moyers on Iptv (the midwestern public
> broadcaster, not the new-fangled technology). I had to turn it off 30
> or 40 minutes into it I was so displeased. I felt like I was watching
> one of those religious programs where they take a pseudo-objective
> stance and come to the startling conclusion that what they've believed
> all along really is true!
>
> Moyers explains that the Internet is essential to democracy and
> letting telcos meter it would let them control democracy (and thus
> stifle it). Let's turn now to our expert. He's got a degree in
> communications, he's dressed in a suit, and besides, he's written a
> book. What does he have to say? "The Internet is essential to
> democracy and letting telcos meter it would let them control
> democracy." The whole time Moyers is nodding his head like "A ha!
> Yes, I see. Well that's troubling." ...and so on. News flash to
> Moyer: He's not telling you anything you haven't already been saying
> the whole program. The purpose of repeating it over and over and over
> again is so that the members of the audience can have the same
> repeated message echoing in their heads over and over and over. I
> heard you the first time.
>
> I heard some semi-decent arguments against the telcos' and cable
> companies' freedoms. But I had too many objections that went
> unanswered, like "Why not eliminate the artificial duopoly these
> companies have in the first place?". The show was entirely one-sided.
> The most opponents of so-called "neutrality" could hope for was the
> occasional line, "The cable company says that such a measure
> would...", followed immediately by, "But respected net pundit
> Wutsizzname says..." and five whole minutes of what he has to say.
> The issue is fuller than the one-sided coin Moyers was flipping the
> audience.
>
> The arguments were based mostly on fear. If the phone company gets to
> play favorites, bad things will happen. Several people utter the word
> "democracy", a couple "children"s, and an appeal to the principles of
> our way of government as practiced by Americans in the 18th century.
> If this were poker Moyers would have a full house (and an extra card).
> But he doesn't have a sound argument. The most I got out of the 40
> minutes I watched was a little more fear about what could happen if
> telcos started selectivley metering internet access, and I'm not even
> sure that fear is justified.
>
> Mostly it struck me as very typical of television. I just can't have
> much respect for those whose primary vehicle of intellectual
> expression is pictures. I've really come to appreciate the quality of
> public radio. NPR consistently leans lefter than me, but I do feel
> like I'm getting a balanced view, presented from multiple points of
> view. (Incidentally, I just put my money where my mouth is for the
> first time yesterday, with respect to this. I "pledged" to public
> radio.)
>
> -- Todd
Well, at least according to you the expert had written a book.
Seems to me you're just passing off your counter opinion as the RWEAL
truth.
>
> "On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament],
> 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will
> the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the
> kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
>
> -- Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
>
-snarfed-
--
Lan Barnes
Linux Guy, SCM Specialist
Tcl/Tk Enthusiast
For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being
obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change
opinions, even on important subjects, which I once thought right but
found to be otherwise.
- Benjamin Franklin
--
[email protected]
http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
