Mud Slinging?
I'd hardly call that mudslinging Gene. It was an explanation and the truth. I don't stand on anything that is Politically Correct. Mudslinging is when I start calling you or the Obama Admininistration names and making accusations without foundation. That is mudlslinging! If the content is not correct, then correct it. If you can't, then it isn't mudslinging. Perhaps it is time to wake up, becuz this very website, by publising the amply political artice that is being commented on, is the target under what is happening to the FCC. Before you know it, you won't be able to publish what you just did. Be careful what you argue about, becuz I have spent years studing this man, even before he won the Presidency, I know who is, what he is and what he stands for. As Stalin once said, the Capitalist will sell you the rope that is used to hang him. In orther words, be careful about stifling or censoring anything concerning free speech.
Let's look at it like this. Several years ago, I found that my local cable company (name is being withheld to prevent mudslinging) was not broadcasting in stereo. Now, the FCC clearly stated in the CFRs that whatever any local station was broadcasting over the air must be provided unchanged to the consumer via cable (and satelite for that matter). In fact, there was a notice on the billing that stated all enquiries should be addressed to the local Franchising Authority...call this number XXX-XXXX. Called that number, got the cable company and not the Franchising Authority and they promplty told me that if I wanted stereo sound I would have to get the "Box". That was not an answer, but who was the Franchising Authority, becuz that number didn't reach him or her or the agency. Took some time, but managed to get a very interesting person within the FCC who promplty told me (we spoke for hours about what was going on in the FCC, and one of those was Net Neutrality which was a concern even back then) that during the Clinton Administration, the FCC was successfully muffled by lobyists, so that even if a consumer reported a breach of the CFRs by the cable company, there was nothing the FCC could do about it. I had to find the Franchising Authority and the cable company didn't have to tell me who it was. It took hours of calling and finally, guess who...The City Attorney was the Franchising Authority and he had no idea that the cable company wasn't providing the stereo signal as per regulation. He thought the sound was normal. I explained how the 4 local TV stations were providing it to the cable company, but signal was being stopped at the receiving station and not being furnished. Why? Becuz, it costs more money to provide the signal in stereo or 5.1, even if it was a violation of the CFRs. They were saving some bucks worth of electricity and equipment and were able to rent out more boxes. The City Attorney investigated, found it was true and promptly fixed that problem. I, and the entire city area of several hundred thousand cable customers were finally furnished a stereo signal on about 60 TV channels. Took only a few days to have it all turned on, plus the company had to dust off all that unused equipment.
There ws no admission by the cable company, none by anyone about what was going on, and the FCC was powerless to do anything about it. The various communication companies and other interested parties are slowly pulling the teeth from the FCC, to stop them from interfering with this sort of thing. Regulations are such pesky things, aren't they?
So, what do you want to do, have an intelligent discussion without resorting to accusations of mudslinging...? Afterall, you guys came up with the article and I'm only commenting on it and doing it without mudslinging. Seems to me that we did much more to Monster Cable some time ago than I just did with that article. Peace?