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From: cjackso@uswnvg.UUCP (Clay Jackson)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Cable Censorship
Keywords: MTV GONE!
Message-ID: <934@uswnvg.UUCP>
Date: 28 Jun 91 16:34:49 GMT
References: <2153@tamsun.TAMU.EDU>
Organization: US West NewVector, Bellevue, Wash.
Lines: 35

In article <2153@tamsun.TAMU.EDU> dmq6899@tamsun.TAMU.EDU (Dave Querin) writes:
>have any suggestions about how to make an impact in this unruly
>decision?  Thank you much.

Well - first, good luck!  Since DeReg, the cable companies are hardly 
regulated at all, unless they do something REALLY awful (and while
cancelling MTV may seem horrible to you, in the overall scheme of things
it's small potatoes), like a negative option deal that TCI tried to pull
here in Washington State.

Anyway - CATV companies are regulated by the municipality (city, county,
whatever) that issues them their exclusive franchise.  Somewhere in your
local area there should be something like an "Office of Cable Communications"
(or some other such title), to whom you can complain as loudly as you want.
It may or may not do any good, depends on how sympathetic the "public
servant" on the other end of the line is with your cause.

The final thing you can do is wait (sometimes a LOOOONG wait, like 10
years) until the cable company's franchise is up for renewal, at which
point a (public) hearing (ask your Cable Communications people to tell you
when the franchise comes up for renewal, and then, about 3-4 months prior
to that, start digging around in your local govt to find out what body
will hold the hearing - typically a city/town or county council.  There
will typically be NO widespread notice of a hearing, so you'll have to
find it on your own!) will be held at which you (and as many friends as you
can muster) can get up and tell the council (or whoever is holding 
the hearing) what scumbags the cable tv operators are, and why they should
not get a new franchise (or at least why they should be forced to do things
differently).


-- 
Clay Jackson - N7QNM
US WEST NewVector Group, Inc
clayj@cjsysv.wa.com | ...uunet!uswnvg!cjackso