AT&T is after me.

Well, we are really facing some nasty stuff in Michigan.

Here's the scoop. Yesterday the MI senate passed HB6456 (S-2). It is a bill that AT&T wants passed. They say it will create competition for your cable dollars and that prices will go down.

Many of you know this stuff, but here it goes.

Here's the big deal. Franchise Fees.

It was determined long ago by the government that 'We the People' own the airwaves. That's why you bought a radio or TV and that was it. You hooked it up to an antena and you recieved programming free of charge. The programming was paid for by advertisers.

When cable came along and wanted to charge for programming, the government acting on behalf of the citizens (which is a democratic government's job by the way, to do the will of the people). The government said okay, you can charge but you have to create a way for The People of the community to use the airwaves. A channel that anyone (not just rich white media corperation owners) could play their own programming and give voice to their thoughts and concerns.

Thus was Public Access born. Here's how it works. 5% of a cable company's profits go to the city that the cable company's services are being sold in. Of that 5% the city uses 2% to fund a Cable Public Access station. In Grand Rapids that is GRTV.

AT&T doesn't want to pay these Franchise Fees (amoung other things). So they designed this bill to do away with them and they are taking the bill from state to state and promising jobs and competition.

This bill destroys the funding for GRTV and introduces new fees to GRTV. Under the new law GRTV will have to pay the cable company for the line that connects it to Comcast. And also pay to be connected to AT&T's new set up.

"The final vote was 26-12 - Eight Democrats and four Republicans voted against the bill. ... Wow, sounds like this was a bi-partisan screwing. No surprise there."

The only hope now is that Granholm will veto it. But she is swayed by the hope of new jobs in MI. So, it is likely she will sign it into law.

So, if you are in MI, write to her. Call her. Tell her to not give into AT&T. They can come in and create jobs without The People losing public access to the airwaves that they own.

I don't like big corperations having all the say in the media. And frankly if there is no GRTV, then there is no Community Media Center, and while my job won't be affected right now, the possiblity of me continuing on after September 2007 will be next to nil.

I think we need to get citezenspeak going here. Has anyone used it? Let me know how it works and how it worked. That presentation at the PSO was great.

Thank-you,
Richard T. Anderson

Comment from danielle martin on December 19, 2006 - 12:52pm

Hey Richard,

I've been following the Michigan legislation and yes, it makes me a bit depressed. I know there's a few public access stations that wanted to get VISTAs and now they're afraid they won't have the funding to support them.

Good luck...

-Danielle