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Hmm. I just read a brief thing MoveOn.org sent me. As much as I like politics I treat most of their mail as junk simply because of expedience.
But I read this thing and it said CBS turned down the opportunity to air their Bush in 30 Seconds ad. Obviously, it's political, and obviously it's critical of Bush, and it doesn't take much hunting around to realize that CBS has an interest in keeping a good alliance with the folks in the White House at any given time (especially with the recent flap over the Reagan mini series).
But the line that stuck with me was "The airwaves are publicly owned" and all of a sudden I was distracted by lots of other considerations regarding public property, public ownership and fair use.
It strikes me as bizarre that we as a people can call something that we cannot touch or personally interact with and has no direct bearing on our survival as ours and lay claim to it with specific regard to ownership, while things like land and water have to be legislated, bought, sold, traded and can be stripped by the government via imminent (or is it emminant? I forget) domain at any time.
It's my bleeding heart side that's speaking here. This has to do with history and tradition, oppression and some very sharp changes in mass attitudes toward the world.
The Indians were chased off their lands which was then parceled out and sold to the highest bidders. But you could also stake a claim on the fronteir and if you could defend it for long enough then it was considered yours. Indians could only bid with cash (which they, of course, didn't have) and no claims of any kinds were recognized.
Out here in the West, water rights have made and broken many people. The laws governing these "rights" (if you need a law to give you a right to clean and plentiful water, then that's not much of a right) have changed over and over throughout the years. LA's water structure is built on a framework of deals that essentially stole it.
But the airwaves. They're for everyone. So long as they have enough cash, I guess.
But I read this thing and it said CBS turned down the opportunity to air their Bush in 30 Seconds ad. Obviously, it's political, and obviously it's critical of Bush, and it doesn't take much hunting around to realize that CBS has an interest in keeping a good alliance with the folks in the White House at any given time (especially with the recent flap over the Reagan mini series).
But the line that stuck with me was "The airwaves are publicly owned" and all of a sudden I was distracted by lots of other considerations regarding public property, public ownership and fair use.
It strikes me as bizarre that we as a people can call something that we cannot touch or personally interact with and has no direct bearing on our survival as ours and lay claim to it with specific regard to ownership, while things like land and water have to be legislated, bought, sold, traded and can be stripped by the government via imminent (or is it emminant? I forget) domain at any time.
It's my bleeding heart side that's speaking here. This has to do with history and tradition, oppression and some very sharp changes in mass attitudes toward the world.
The Indians were chased off their lands which was then parceled out and sold to the highest bidders. But you could also stake a claim on the fronteir and if you could defend it for long enough then it was considered yours. Indians could only bid with cash (which they, of course, didn't have) and no claims of any kinds were recognized.
Out here in the West, water rights have made and broken many people. The laws governing these "rights" (if you need a law to give you a right to clean and plentiful water, then that's not much of a right) have changed over and over throughout the years. LA's water structure is built on a framework of deals that essentially stole it.
But the airwaves. They're for everyone. So long as they have enough cash, I guess.
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