I received a cable television bill in the mail on Saturday. It turns out, and I looked at old bills to see if it had always been there (and it had), there was a line down at the bottom near the 'amount due' ($112.something) that said "Thank you for choosing Cxxc@$t". That made me smile. Not so much the arrogance of thanking me--heck, they could have been attempting to be sarcastic though I doubt it, having met with a few of their shirt and tie folks in the past, but the idea that I had any choice in the selection of my cable TV provider.
These guys are huge and like so much of Corporate America they closely resemble what Teddy R and the Trust Busters called a vertical combination in restraint of trade (=monopoly). And if you think Teddy R and the Trust Busters were the opening act for Leo Kottke that Saturday night at the El 'N' Gee Club, please visit your local board of education and ask for your money back. Our lives in 21st America are almost all vertical and horizontal combinations in restraint of trade. We just get to choose the pace, I guess.
When you look at the TV and realize how many of the stations we watch are actually part of larger entertainment combines (and we thought The Seven Sisters were greedy (back then at a buck a gallon)?), we'd more easily relate to Springsteen's 57 Channels. But that's just the entertainment tip of the iceberg--I get a little nervous on news and information since I'm not convinced everyone speaking with one voice is always a good idea. (I spent eight years in the USAF defending freedom of speech, though I didn't have very much at the time, so I'm a little touchy on the issue now).
When you open your local newspaper and realize how much of its contents come from folks about whom we know little or nothing (who is in the Associated Press? Actually, bad example. I am, but who else? We don't have meetings or secret handshakes or a clubhouse (that I know of)) and here in small-market SE CT we are fortunate that we're so tiny and puny, demographically and economically, we're not worth the trouble you see in large markets across the USA.
In NYC and in our larger metro areas, many of the same folks who own the newspapers own television and radio stations--when I was a wee slip of a lad, a corporation could own up two seven TV/radio/newspapers but not more than two could be in the same market (usually folks who shelled out for radio licenses bought TV licenses as well) and a lot of this enforcement was accomplished by the Federal Communications Commission who regarded the nation's frequencies as a public trust. I know, how quaint is that?
Eventually, inevitably say some, the same federal government who decided catsup (or ketchup) was a vegetable in terms satisfying nutritional requirements for school lunches (back in the days when kids had gym class and recess and weren't morbidly obese by the time they were eleven), decided that freedom from choice was as good as freedom of choice.
Do you find it amazing when your watch your local TV news that it all sort of looks the same? There's a pretty couple of anchors, nothing romantic just nice to look at, some kind of an eccentric who handles weather, an older, almost avuncular guy who's always on special assignment and a former failed jock who now does sports. They all sort of look the same, don't they, and the stories they cover all run together.
As a matter of fact, tell the truth, when you drive past some station's TV up link van in your neighborhood, your first thought is 'where are the other guys?'. And when you get home, even if those guys aren't your regular TV news folks, you tune to them to see what the hell was going on down the street from your house. And then, maybe later, if it's a really big story you see on TV or read in the paper the following day an analysis of whatever it was about to help you understand whatever it was about. Sentient thinking is overrated.
I love the national political analysis stuff most of all--it's like captioning for the thinking impaired. Right after the President speaks, everyone has talking heads on to tell me what he meant (considering his sometimes casual relationship with spoken English, I admire anyone who attempts to parse his words for meaning) and then we're there done, someone from the other party come soon to tell us what he/she thinks and then the talking heads come back and explain what they meant as well.
No wonder I can't think clearly, I don't have too. I got people. Now toss me a packet of ketchup and let's enjoy this Gil-Scott Heron kickin' it old school.
-bill kenny
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