Scratch that…

I knew I shouldn’t have posted about having such a great day at 10 a.m. I was having a good day, until I read this.

The FCC wants to force cable companies to offer channels to people on an “a la carte” system. On the surface, this sounds like a good idea: pay for what you watch, and don’t pay for what you don’t watch.

What bothers me is that the government is going to mandate this. This is a conservative-backed policy that Republican Sen. John McCain wants to push through to keep families from having to pay for raunchy television. Fair enough, but what was wrong with the V chip? Why should the government force cable companies to run their businesses as they see fit?

In the article Kyle McSlarrow, president of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association said Washington has no place mandating how the industry runs its business.

I couldn’t agree more.

I find it ironic that Republicans who whine about big government are the ones behind this drive to legislate cable television.

However, not only is this law totally unnecessary, it also could have extreme impact and reach. If people can pick and choose which channels they buy, cable companies, advertisers and possibly the government will have a better idea of who’s watching what. I wonder if Bush will be able to get his hands on this information. “Citizen A opted not to buy Fox News and one of the 40 Christian-only stations out there, and instead he paid for Comedy Central. He must be a terrorist!” During the November elections, will hear stump speeches such as “My opponent buys Showtime and Bravo, both of which have shows featuring homosexuals. You don’t want this type of person as your representative, do you?”

Not only do I fear the government’s spying eyes, I also fear the mainstream’s new power to kill intelligent programming. If people choose which cable stations to buy, E!, VH1 and ESPN are going to thrive while CNN, Bravo and Discovery die. Bundled cable packages help less popular channels survive. When the mainstream stops buying the less popular channels, they’ll lose the ad revenue to survive.

Now, I realize that my position might be a tad hypocritical considering I don’t even have cable. But my favorite channel, PBS, doesn’t have advertising anyway, so it’s a moot point. Plus, Bush’s appointees to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting are trying to kill even-handed journalism at PBS and NPR through new right-wing ombudsman, but that’s another story. It looks like I might have to get cable anyway.