Columns

Citizens are left to watch, not to be seen

By HOWARD TROXLER
Published July 17, 2007

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.

When I mention government-run TV, folks often say something like: "Oh, the station that shows the meetings? That's a good thing."

And I agree it is a good thing to broadcast public meetings to the citizens.

But Pinellas 18 is a lot more than that.

Without question, there is plenty of informative stuff on there, ranging from hurricane preparation to pet adoption.

But Pinellas 18 also serves as a vigorous propaganda engine for the government.

County commissioners are often present on Pinellas 18's shows. They claim to teach us, to help us be better citizens. They serve on panels. They are interviewed as experts. They beam over groups of children and they tour parks.

One show I watched informed me about how the mean old Florida Legislature imposes "unfunded mandates" on local governments. Another featured at least three commissioners as interviewees or panelists.

If the star isn't the County Commission, it's some other part of the government. There's a program called Your Sheriff's Office.

Oh, and at times Pinellas 18 also runs a Pentagon-produced show titled Army Newswatch.

Faced with a $600,000 cut, the county's communications department decided to achieve most of it by wiping out Access Pinellas and its $350,000 budget.

The budget for Pinellas 18 is $1.1-million. At a County Commission meeting to discuss the cuts earlier this year, nobody raised the possibility of cutting Pinellas 18 too.

Instead, the commissioners thanked the department director for helping to get voters to renew the Penny for Pinellas sales tax.

Maybe you don't like public access, or think it is outdated. Still, it's telling that when the Pinellas government had to choose, it cut public access first, to protect its own channel.

If the Pinellas County commissioners (or any city with similar programming) leave their own, glorifying TV channel largely untouched ...

Then they have zero credibility if they ever dare again to complain about being forced to cut spending.

Boohoo, a budget cut! But thank goodness, I got to keep my TV show ...

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[Last modified July 17, 2007, 00:04:30]