Give Us Cable Choice for Decency's Sake!     2/3/2004
By Martha Kleder

Beleaguered parents are often told that if they don't like a TV program to "just change the channel." To add insult to injury, these same consumers often have to pay for the trash they are trying to avoid.

Cable and satellite dish systems force customers to purchase channels that they don't watch and find offensive. And the excesses of these systems, which are exempt from Federal Communications Commission (FCC) content rules, drive regular broadcasting channels to air ever-more-coarse programming.

The solution may be "cable choice," in which consumers order only the channels they want. But it will take an act of Congress to force companies to create such a consumer-friendly system. [more ...]

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