John McCain wants to blow up the cable industry as we currently know it. “The legislation would force cable companies and satellite TV providers to give consumers an option to pick and choose which channels they get. This is called “à la carte programming’…” So we would no longer pay for crap like MSNBC and CNN and the other 90% of channels we NEVER watch? Well then, BOMBS F—ING AWAY!
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It would be different if there were a decent amount of competition, instead of just one choice for an area. They can tack on a hundred useless ball game channels, and you have to pay for it, or you can't watch what you want to watch.
What will happen is cable programming will go from 120 channels of crap nobody watches, to 50 channels of government controlled shit that nobody wants. I bet this piece of shit legislation comes with a massive expansion of the powers of the FCC as well.
Sounds like a good idea, but everything the government "fixes" ends up making it way worse than it was before. Furthermore, no politician does any thing without somehow making money off of it. So, this is probably just a situation where McLame comes up with this plan and the cable companies send him a few million $ to STFU, and then raises our rates to pay for the bribe money it cost them to make him forget about it.
If it is not obvious, I dont trust politicians.
anything that increases the necessity of government and its continued growth into our lives, career political slugs like McCain are in favor of: not illegals, not the nation, not the economy or the destruction of the constitution or the debt?
For once the Arizona hemorrhoid actually has come up with some what of a good idea.
In theory. But I sort of doubt it would work out the way you think. But then, I grew up as an Air Force brat, so I have never trusted the government.
Isn't his proposal basically the internet?
shut up, creepycrawley.
Man, this is finally a subject about corporate greed and you miss the entire boat.
How can he have missed the boat when he's so far out to sea?
It's a plan about taking down greedy cable corporations which the internet did years ago.
MAN you
are stupid! If the internet took down cable companies (and I am including Satellite TV here) why are there still cable companies everywhere, gobbling up money for crap offerings and more advertisiments than are on commercial TV? Do you EVER leave your basement? IDIOT!
If the internet already took down the greedy cable corporations, then why do we still care whether they are greedy or not? I don't know, but that sounds like another problem solved by the free market.
There's will always be other greedy corporations.
Hey crowley, serious question for you. What greedy telecommunications corporation do you use to gain access to the internet? My guess is that they also have cable tv packages as well. So who is it?
What? Giving the TV watching public a choice? That's downright un-American! (Unless we're talking about abor...er, 'women's reproductive health', in which case choice is the bedrock principle upon which the Republic rests).
I don't want it legislated! Let the free market decide. It's heading that way anyway.
And all along my presumption was that John McCain was good for nothing more than a boat anchor.
He sure kept the USS Pailn moored in 2008.
Well- he's proposing government micromanage a private industry which falls under the category of, "Careful what you wish for"... and no, he'd make a lousy boat anchor considering the fact that most fecal matter floats.
Depends on the amount of fat. He is in pretty good shape, so he might work as an anchor.
I would concur. Question 1 -- what do you think this will do to prices?
I'm wondering if it'll do for prices what breaking up Ma Bell did.
I don't see the cable companies just rolling over and allowing revenue to drop. Ala carte will not be cheap just as it isn't in a restaurant or anywhere else. Look at the flat/declining slightly revenues at the fast food restaurants that offer dollar menus.
stinkfoot, I hear you loud and clear. Chose to insult him over giving away the presidency in 2008 v. micromanagement of private sector.
Do you think there's anything to the rumors of collusion among cable providers on services and prices DESPITE the growing voice of the market? Could be time for intervention.
It wouldn't surprise me if there was collusion on rates but to me such things are irrelevant as I do not subscribe to any cable television... I will not watch the thing... too much brainwash and WAY too much display of just how stupid we're taken to be- particularly during political campaign season.
It is indeed time for multiple interventions- culturally we need to come up with some idea as to what are reasonable limits for TV viewing for adults and children. We need to hone critical thinking skills in order to cut through the narrative being force fed through mainstream media news outlets. The media together with the public education system is rendering the population into a soft target of opportunity for tyrants... we're being led to see freedoms and liberties as inconveniences that call for institutional intervention... every little inconvenience provokes some form of debate as to the government's role when a truly empowered population wouldn't consider it.
McCain was the GOP's sacrificial lamb in '08 as Romney was in '12. It's becoming increasingly evident that unless something very significant happens soon and alternatives to our steady decline to Socialism will be purely symbolic. Surely the last thing we need is for an entity that has shown itself to be as dishonorable and contemptible as our government moving toward micromanaging and regulating television... and don't think that they wouldn't take the opportunity to issue edicts about programming content.