🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug18.155310.18355@mcshub.dcss.mcmaster.ca> bunker@physun.physics.mcmaster.ca (Alex Bunker) writes:

>>  Well, there goes the freedom of expression. How many other freedoms are you
>>  planning to trash on your way to an all-Good, all-knowing, all-wonderful
>>  world government? It's beginning to sound more and more like 1984 to me. 
>>
>>ab> Television will become more educational and less commercially-consumer
>>ab> advocating pander to the lowest common denomenator.
>>
>>  Interesting. Get rid of ads, and we get better TV. Um, how does this TV 
>>  get paid for in the first place? Advertisers. You make it sound as though 
>>  advertising itself is some kind of evil thing. Sorry, but if you remember
>>  creating a resume, you were advertising yourself. Basically, without it,
>>  the flow of information decreases greatly. Again, your future world sounds
>>  less and less inviting and desirable the more you talk about it.
>>
>>ab> Look the best television is on the channels without commercials PBS TVO
>>ab> BBC etc...
>>
>>  Here in the US, the Discovery channel and A&E are doing quite well, and
>>  presenting quite good TV, with commercials too! I think I'll take a stu-
>>  pid commercial every 15 minutes over interminable "pledge drives" any day.
>>
>>  Believe it or not, capitalism is not the source of every stinking festering
>>  problem facing the world. If there's one thing your posts indicate, you 
>>  have become radicalized by reading the Net. I remember a kindler, gentler
>>  Alex Bunker a short time back. Relax, and get mellow. No need to sound so
>>  final and declarative and know-it-all.
>>
>>--
>>Gary Strand                      Opinions stated herein are mine alone and are
>>strandwg@ncar.ucar.edu            not representative of NCAR, UCAR, or the NSF
>
>There seems to be a misunderstanding here my comments on television
>and advertising have NOTHING to do with world government. We got sidetracked
>and they are a seperate issue. I do not particularly like commercial television
>because it is not a free form of expression because it is beholden to
>the views of the advertisers. 

     Thems that pays the bills gets to call the shots.  Or, more
accurately, "He who has the gold makes the rules."

>We see this in comparing PBS to A&E. 

     The Discovery Channel was brought up above.  It's an excellent channel
with a lot of good programs.  And commercials.

>The
>quality and intellectual depth and vartiety of perspectives available
>on PBS is FAR greater than pathetic ultraconservative A&E (the 
>standup comedy-documentaries about war from a hawkish perspective channel)
>I want a TRULY free form of expression. 

     You mean where somebody comes into your home and builds you a
broadcast tower for free?  Such things are expensive.  If you don't
believe me, buy a television spot.

>What is commercially viable is
>not free. 

     Nothing is free.  If its not commercially viable, who are you going
to get to pay for it?  The taxpayers?  Why should they pay for your speech?
Is *everybody* going to get their own broadcast tower?

>What about programming that is anti-capitalist?

     Obviously the capitalists aren't going to pay for attacks against
them.  Somehow the idea of letting somebody use *my* lawn to shout that
I'm evil and corrupt at my house doesn't seem very appealing to me.

>or exposes great wrongs in the consumerist status quo?
>We do not get
>to see these shows because the advertisers hold the networks in blackmail.

     The advertisers say, "We'll pay you money for this."  That's not
blackmail.  Why should the advertisers be *forced* to pay for something
they don't like.
 
     I don't see you advertising in your signature that world government
is a stupid idea.  A lot of people think that.  Why are you only presenting
*your* view?

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|David Veal  PA146008@utkvm1.utk.edu  University of Tennessee             |  
|                                     Division of Continuing Education    |
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