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Government Channels Sent To Area 51

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By DANIEL RUTH

Published: December 15, 2007

It is probably true that in the cable neighborhood Hillsborough County's public/government access channels have been exiled to the coaxial equivalent of Elba meets Area 51.

This week, Bright House Networks consigned the public/government access channels from their spots on the lower end of the listings up into the stratospheric 600 range. Think of this as the FEMA trailer of cable television.

There's been a great deal of brou and no small amount of haha associated with the reconfigured channel lineups, with many public access devotees crying nefariousness most foul in being relegated into the upper, upper reaches of the cable spectrum.

Depending on your level of cable service, you may already have access to the various access channels now found up there in the Thomas Pynchon Programming Package.

Riveting Meetings

If not, you'll have to pay an additional $1 a month for a special digital box to receive the coveted Jimmy Hoffa Deluxe Access Programming deal, which will give you entry to those exciting Tampa City Council Meetings, those riveting Hillsborough County Commission meetings as well as other vital government bodies deliberating on whatever it is they deliberate on.

And yes, of course, you'll also be treated to public access programming featuring bloviating preachers, bumptious political gadflies and other assorted lunatic fringe types howling at the moon.

Still, was it a cheesy, declasse thing for Bright House to banish the access channels? Sure it was. As boring and/or bad as some of this stuff is, access provides a rare opportunity for your average Joe Blow to have a First Amendment soapbox. And that is always a good thing.

Bright House should remember a bit of cable history.

It was the promise on the part of cable television operators to provide these public/government access channels to cities, which served a major incentive to win the rights to wire communities.

Habit Driven

And now that Bright House is the established cable provider in this community, it seems a bit disingenuous to renege on that early commitment.

We all know much of television viewing is habit driven. Supporters of public/government access always knew where to find their channels. Citizens with an interest in local government knew where to locate their elected officials in action.

In the interest of fairness, though, if you are a cable subscriber by now you have probably figured out how to operate the remote control.

Really now, how hard is it to punch in, say, channel 622, which will immediately lead you to a government access channel?

This isn't as if you need to know a special password, or the airspeed of an African swallow, or take a secret oath. If you have a finger, this is pretty much a no-brainer.

In all likelihood, after a bit of confusion, people will sort out the musical cable channel chairs and discover how to navigate their way to the new access motherland.

Staying informed, involved, impassioned has always been the hallmark of dedicated citizenship. Finding a cable channel in the 600 tier may have made that devotion a pinch more demanding, but hardly a threat to democracy.

Keyword: Book of Ruth to read and comment on Daniel Ruth's blog.

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