Tom Barry wrote: > I suppose it would make sense if Mr. Dingell gets contributions from > the cable industry. Though I don't haven't checked to see if he does. I wonder if this is what Craig was talking about, when he said: > Are there parallels to this in the U.S.? > > Do we have huge conglomerates controlling huge chunks of the economy, > who rely on government regulation to hold onto their power? That could be. There is another possible explanation, but it seems amazingly bone-headed. It could be that John Dingell "knows" that what Kevin Martin really wants to do is to implement the 70/70 rule, and then force cable companies to adopt a la carte program subscriptions. And perhaps he listened to all the lobbyists who warned him that all those niche channels they care about would drop off the "carte" in a hurry, if each has to pay its own fare. I would instead have expected that once the 70/70 rule becomes implemented, then the politicians have that much more leverage to impose whatever they want. And that consequently, John Dingell and the lobbyists would favor that. Craig must feel awfully conflicted in all of this. Doesn't have much use for the FCC, and yet his only hope for a la carte comes from the Commish himself, and no one else. Bert ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways: - Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at FreeLists.org - By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.