lvc@cbscc.UUCP (Larry Cipriani) (05/16/85)
A recent article in Video Review mentions that a lawyer successfully won in Federal Court that 1) cable TV companies have the same First Ammendment rights as newspapers, and 2) (if my memory is working) that franchise fees amounts to taxation, and hence are illegal. This will probably get taken to the Supreme Court by some city council intent on keeping their power. I believe the biggest factor that makes TV (cable and broadcast) so mediocre is government regulation, and licensing. Instead of good investigative reporting you can find in many magazines, we're left with 20/20 and 60 Minutes (wonderful). TV companies are fat, dumb, and happy, and we're the worse off for it! I do not see the kind of reporting I want on TV, instead I have to rely on a few magazines. Nightline is about the closest I can get to the kind of news programming I want, and it's shown at 12:30 a.m. (after WKRP Cincinatti and The Benny Hill Show!), and I don't have a VCR yet. I hope this recent ruling will lead to competetion in the cable TV market. You can expect lower cost, and better programming. Until then, cable TV is just another damn *government enforced* monopoly, typically of high cost, and marginal quality. Larry Cipriani cbscc!lvc