Wednesday, November 30, 2005

With Friends Like Ted Stevens, Jerry Falwell Doesn't Need Enemies



Read this article in the LA Times. It's about how the televangelists have suddenly realized that Ted Stevens' nefarious plans for cable TV might not work out so well for their kind after all. Um... it's kinda complicated, so read the article, OK?

Now, what the Times only hints at is this: if cable TV is "overhauled" in a way which requires cable providers to offer channels strictly on an "a la carte" basis, it will spell disaster for the fundamentalist Christian televangelists. The fundies love to claim that they are mainstream, but when people have to specifically choose to receive their nutty programming... well, the statistics will speak for themselves, and it won't be pretty. I mean... which channel will get more subscribers, Cinemax or PTL? Many of the mainstream industries who now and then get distracted or frightened by the fundies (Microsoft, Target, etc.), will be able to blithely brush them off as the freakish, marginal niche group that they truly are.

OK... obviously I'm starting to ramble and daydream... but Ted Stevens couldn't be that smart or that stupid... could he?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think the "anti-indecency advocates" trying to protect us all from the quasi-porn on F/X and the like will be surprised by how many people choose to keep those "provocative" channels. We like our naked people and violent police dramas. Maybe we also like our to have our thoughts provoked in between "King of the Hill" and "That 70s Show" reruns. (And where else can you watch Buffy dust vamps before heading to work?)

The free-market freaks in the GOP ought to be salivating over this a la carte delivery thing -- it's laissez-faire at its best! Then again, they don't really care so much about increasing consumer choice (hey, we could keep FauxNews off our TV completely, oh no!) as they do corporate profit. Even so, I think it's a fabulous idea and hope it progresses.