Tuesday Column: Citizens Are Left To Watch, Not To Be Seen

Today's newspaper is filled with news of all the ways that citizens will suffer through service cuts if local governments are forced to cut their taxes. I didn't plan it this way, but it makes today's column about Pinellas County eliminating its public-access cable channel, while keeping its government propaganda channel, all the more timely....

Here is a tale of two channels on the TV dial, and why one must die so that the other can live.

The one to be axed is Channel 96, the "public access" channel on some of the cable TV systems in Pinellas County.

(Some cities have their own city channel and don't carry public access.)

Known as "Access Pinellas," Channel 96 features citizen-producers churning out their own programs - religious, cultural, book talk, dance, politics, personal rants.

But the Pinellas County government plans to eliminate Access Pinellas' budget as of Sept. 30.

There are tax cuts taking effect, see. Everybody has to tighten their belts.

This brings us to the other TV station. Pinellas 18 is the county government channel... [rest of column]

Comments

[Gary]

When watching Pinellas 18 BCC meeting, it was mentioned the budget for Pinellas 18 was $4.2 million. The budget for Access $349,000. The director was asked why the buget had increased from $2.3 million in 2002 to the current $4.2. She said a department from this building with 10 employees was put into her budget.
But the truth of this situation is big business is shutting down Access channels all over the country in an effort to save money on broadcasting and eliminating the franchise fee that go with it. In Pinellas, they rolled the franchise fees into the "communication service tax" so they will continue to get the funds. Shutting down Access will NOT decrease your taxes.
In the past few years, they also funneled the fees into the general fund so the funds could be used for other purposes instead of for their original purpose: public access TV. Kinda like our Social Security money. Read between the lines you'll see this plan of eliminating the Access Channel has been going on for years and is being promoted under the guise of budget cuts. Lets face it. The county's budget income has gone up over 100% in the past few years because of the property value tax increases. It just proves the government will spend every cent you give them and more. Also remember that once they get your vote it goes from "We the People" to "Me the People."