One Promise Cable Kept Is Worth Protecting

Remember when cable television was new and still promising? One of its most popular slogans, in fact, was “The promise of cable.” We were promised first-run movies in our own living rooms. We were promised an endless choice of channels, a mind-boggling array of future services.

As most of us have learned the hard way, many of the promises of cable were made only to be broken. Where I live, the company that won the first cable franchise with the city promised us, among other things, a phenomenal system that would include special channels for the City Council, the local community college and the public, as well as ultra-sophisticated video links between city schools, governmental offices, emergency services and other facilities.

Well, wouldn’t you know that after the contract was awarded, suddenly, mysteriously, the cable company discovered that it would be impossible to deliver on all those fronts. It didn’t fail to deliver those monthly bills to subscribers--though it was quick to kiss goodby those ridiculously low rates for basic service that lured us all to sign up.

But one of the promises on which most cable systems did come through was the public-access channel. This was the channel reserved as a video-age vox populi --the voice of the people.

Yet, some citizens become enraged when the channel is used for the type of programming for which it was designed--alternatives.

These can range from low-budget talk shows to mini-MTV music video programs, to shows by service organizations and church groups pointing out needs in their communities. Alternatives can also include more controversial fare, such as “Race and Reason,” a show produced by (and advocating) the Ku Klux Klan, aired around the country on numerous public-access channels.

One program that has raised some hackles around Orange County recently is “Spectrum News,” a locally produced show that covers issues affecting gays and lesbians. In Santa Ana and Orange, where the show airs, a group of outraged citizens have said they want it off; some have even suggested axing the public-access channel entirely.

At first, executives at the Santa Ana system reacted to the uproar by announcing that they would indeed stop airing “Spectrum News.” And in Orange, cable officials said they wanted to hold all future editions of “Spectrum News” for two weeks so they could review them, a move the producer argued would effectively kill a program that is supposed to be timely.

Cooler heads--more likely, better-informed heads--appear to have prevailed.

City attorneys in Orange and Santa Ana recognize that, as some other communities have discovered after long and expensive lawsuits, the content of programs on public-access cable channels is protected by the First Amendment. As long as what is being shown is not pornographic, libelous or blatantly commercial in nature, it’s pretty much anything goes.

And isn’t that what public access is supposed to be?

“It creates an outlet for local opinions, for a wide range of ideas and views,” says Jay Boylan, professor of communications at Chapman College in Orange and a member of the city’s Community Video Advisory Board. “It’s one of the only ways that an ordinary person can make a television show and get it on the air, being that television generally is a very expensive medium.”

Reginald Carter is operations director for the Washington-based National Federation of Local Cable Programmers, which claims 1,130 member organizations representing 6 million people nationwide. He says the NFLCP advises that when groups are offended by public-access programs, cable systems should give them the opportunity to make their own shows, with opposing opinions.

Unfortunately, sometimes these critics would rather promote dialogue on hot topics.

“Our board has some funds we can grant for local productions,” Boylan says. “I’ve suggested at a couple of meetings (that critics of ‘Spectrum News’) apply for a grant and produce their own show. I think the board would look very favorably on airing a program like that. But (the ‘Spectrum News’ critics) don’t seem to be interested in that.”

What often gets lost in these controversies is the idea that the public-access channel exists to benefit the public, not the cable system. Most cable companies would do away with public-access if they had their druthers, since they don’t bring in any revenue and just take up space on the dial that could be devoted to yet another money-making movie channel.

Dump the public-access channel, and the only voices left on this most powerful electronic box will be those that would sell you radial tires or flame-broiled cheeseburgers.

That’s a promise.