New cable bill would limit choice, control, says AFSC
director
To the editor:
Ohio Senate Bill (SB) 117, recently passed by the Ohio Senate and now before the Ohio House of Representatives, is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
The legislation is billed by the AT&T corporation, other transnational media conglomerates and its political proponents, including state Sen. Kevin Coughlin [(R-District 27)], as the route to cheaper cable bills and better service. The issues of price and service are smokescreens, however, to the underlining issue of local control.
SB 117 would strip the power and authority currently held by Bath, Richfield, Akron, Wadsworth, Cuyahoga Falls and scores of other municipalities across the state to shape and mold the terms and conditions of cable and video service through local cable “franchise agreements.” Under SB 117, local franchise agreements, each one unique to the interests and demands of each community, would be replaced by a single state agreement overseen by the Ohio Department of Commerce.
As a citizen, the only relevant criteria in evaluating this bill is whether or not it increases my right to decide, that is, my ability to have a real voice in the formation, implementation and evaluation of public policies affecting my life, my community and our natural world. The shifting of decision-making over cable and video service from the local to the state level will reduce our power as citizens to influence local elected officials to forge a local franchise agreement that allows citizens the ability to produce their own cable programs.
Letting “the market” decide through competition and our purchases is insufficient. Providing consumers more choice is often no choice. For example, what’s the real difference between $3.39 and $3.34 per gallon of gas or the difference between $100+ Nike and $100+ Reebok shoes? When competitors collude, consumers are powerless.
What has become of so-called “conservatives” today? Officials who are willing to let faceless bureaucrats at the Ohio Department of Commerce removed from local communities decide what is best for that community? Officials who would allow giant global corporations to have access behind closed doors to unelected bureaucrats who implement laws? Why is there fear to let the public have a greater role, a greater voice, in determining video/cable service franchise agreements?
Many proponents of “cable reform” today are the same legislators that pushed for “campaign finance reform” in Ohio a few years ago, which raised individual contribution limits from $2,500 per person to $10,000. Wealthy people and corporations loved that reform. Just as the AT&T corporation and other transnational media corporations love SB 117.
These are all reasons to do all we can to oppose this preemption of local control.
Greg Coleridge, director, Economic Justice & Empowerment Program, Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Cuyahoga Falls
|
