Media Monsters

[Ken Medlin <dev-plan@moscow.com>]

Largely due to two fine universities in our neighborhoods, we are blessed 
with high quality programming most of the time, so that our children and 
families can better understand our world. For the rest of the 
programming, other than regional news of "who dunnit". and the weather, 
what fare is our community served? Recently a Michigan newspaper reporter 
investigated the "take" by ABC for its 2-hr. (90 min. interview, 30 min. 
advertising) 20/20 piece of Barbara Walters hosting Monica (who?).  He 
found out that ABC charged its advertisers  an average of $800K for each 
30-sec. segment, for those minutes (approx. 10 min) that were NOT 
released for LOCAL station inputs, etc. So the remaining 20 minutes 
netted ABC an estimated $35 million for the 2-hour interview!  If we 
wanted to know really what much of the hype that this highly personal, 
but also political of course, affair was all about, we'd have to consider 
these lucrative earnings from advertising as one of the driving 
motivations. You know where the money comes from: Our household budgets 
used to buy the advertisers' products. Could we possibly use our money 
differently? Think about it.
    It's a free market. So why cannot we, in our neat communities here, 
have more programming suited to our own needs, rather than being served 
so much stuff of quesitonable value and import to our lives? Ownership of 
utility lines and broadcasting are   publicly regulated operations, yet 
we the public have almost no say in what they carry. Think about it.  
It's our children's future.

------------------------
William K. Medlin
Dev-plan associates
930 Kenneth Street
Moscow ID 83843
208/892-0148
dev-plan@moscow.com