Vermont cable-access board won't cancel contested show

<A man will be allowed to continue broadcasting a cable television show that celebrates Nazis, insults blacks and homosexuals and has shown videos of the beheadings of hostages in Iraq.

The board of the Community Access cable channel decided that John Long’s show was ugly and confrontational show, but he had a right to produce his show and use Channel 15 as his broadcasting “soapbox.”

They pointed to Vermont Community Access Media’s mission to support “unfettered free speech” and “public dialogue.”

Long bills himself as “Mr. Happy.” He aims his Community Access television program, “How Do You Like Me Now?” at what he calls “scumbag” liberals.

Four viewers, however, said Long’s program amounted to an abuse of free speech. They presented the board with a petition signed by 250 other viewers. It asked the public access directors to devise “more stringent and more consistent means of determining programming appropriate for the viewing public, particularly those programs which contain graphic violence.”>

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=15010

Or is this content appropriate for children?

http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues.14741193

to show those scumbag regressives.

There is a guy in the comm access network here that shows hardcore porn late at night. There used to be a time when the show was kind of early, so you would be changing channels and suddenly you would have a nice anal shot.. :evilgrin: I really don't know how the guy gets away with the copyright issues, though.

The CAN here is truly out there. There is another guy that also shows hardcore but with an "educational" purpose. There there is Goddess Kringen, and Pastor Mary, a complete christian nutjob that has a "Messiah contest" (Something like: find a better Messiah than Jesus and you get a price, of course, you never win..)

Anyway, I'm ready to defend this fellow in Vermont because I'm a firm believer in the First Amend. Otherwise I wouldn't have access to that zoo that is Seattle's CAN.. :-)

Cheers..

...if you let people like that just talk, you do more harm to their "causes" than if you try to squelch them. I heard one of Fred Phelps' people call in on a local radio show (no shit) up here in the Lake Effect Zone once. She was talking about how 9/11 was God's will (swear to God!) and the 2700-odd people who died there deserved it. She sounded like someone who had escaped from an insane asylum, and she couldn't be reasoned with, debated, or anything. It was like talking to a two year old on crystal meth. I cannot imagine that tirade accomplishing a damned thing.

That is quite a bit of fun. I called the "Pastor" I mentioned in my other post once.. It was quite a treat and she ended up hanging up on me.. :-)

Cheers.

It's about the only thing I miss about cable since I switched to satellite.

Can't argue with that.

The good thing is the guy quite likely comes off as an asshole, which hurts his cause. If he is as abrasive at it sounds, he certainly won't be changing anyone's mind who doesn't already agree with him...

:shrug:

That's why it's called public access, isn't it?

:headbang:
rocknation

this is truly bizarro world.

"Public television" (PBS) is different from "community access cable television."

PBS is broadcast (antenna) TV funded by a combination of tax dollars, viewer dollars, and grant or endowment dollars. It is subject to FCC regulation, and fines.

Community access cable television is not broadcast over the air, and is exempt from direct FCC regulation. The provider may charge for production time, but broadcast time may be free, or at a "nominal" fee. It is usually available on a non-discriminatory, first-come-first-served basis to members of the community served by the cable provider. The most common restriction is against "obscene, indecent, libelous, or slanderous material." The legal definitions of "obscene" and "indencent" usually exclude non-sexual or scatalogical content, even if it is putrid, neo-Nazi, white supremecist crap.


The Pagan Preacher
I don't turn the other cheek.

a legal argument.

There is a time and a place for everything. Different rules for different schools.

Normally, we don't tell dick jokes to a kindergarten class. Yet, hanging out in the dorm at university, that might be the norm.

Broadcast (free) TV is like a kindergarten. Nothing controversial, nothing racy. Them's the rules.

Cable (pay) TV has more freedom. You can tell dick jokes, or act like a neo-Nazi piece of shit, and it's not a rulebreaker.

No irony there.


The Pagan Preacher
I don't turn the other cheek.

Don't confuse legal with just.

Remove limits on PBS, or add limits to Community Access Cable Television?

Why is your solution the "right" one, or the "just" one?

The Pagan Preacher
I don't turn the other cheek.

It's only good as long as it doesn't shock the sensitive sensibilities of people who have the Town Burgher's home phone numbers....

When I was in Indianapolis, we had a show that was a 1/2 hour of some guy getting stoned ("I think I'll FIRE THIS MUTHA UP again!") while he rambled about how he's been followed by the CIA and FBI ever since he got back from the Nam.

Then there was the "variety" show "How SICK is IT?"
With "Pope-ah Bob" (Pope's Rap: I'm-a da Pope. I do-a Pope tings, wit a great beega hat, anna beeger reeng!" Nudity, and masturbation jokes.

And then the usual storefront rattlesnake preachers that were the bulk of ICAN fare....

The First Ammendment can be messy sometimes....

When I lived in town and had cable, all we ever got were small-town city council meetings and polyester-clad preachers.

I'm bobbing my head to the "Pope's Rap." Thanks!

The Pagan Preacher
100% natural fibers

had an access show produced by a couple of guys. Thirty minutes of hilarious and uncensored comedy.

One of the two, Jim Mallon, went on to MST3K fame!

Too bad nobody recorded that old Public Access TV programming.

The Pagan Preacher
I don't turn the other cheek.

So the master tape exisits out there somewhere.

This was 1979-1984, before VCRs were around, so no private copies.
DARN IT!

Jim from Wisconsin, a MSTie, knows about an obscure public access TV program from 25 years ago, and about the lost master tapes....

Gypsy, is that you?


The Pagan Preacher
I don't turn the other cheek.