It's always good to know what the other side is thinking and doing. Suffice it to say that TV broadcasters are not happy about the Supreme Court must-carry case being advanced by Cablevision Systems and supported by the likes of Discovery Channel and C-Span.
Somehow the definition of free--as in free speech, not free over-the-air--is getting entwined into the fight especially as it comes to low-rated TV stations that Cablevision doesn't want to carry and Discovery doesn't want to see carried while maintaining that must-carry laws violate the free speech portion of the First Amendment.
Broadcast backers bristle at this. "Free speech--in theory--gives the right of cable operators to choose what programming they want to air. But here's another truth: free speech doesn't mean free programming," said Wayne Friedman in a MediaPost blog.
For more:
- see this blog
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