Pro-Family Groups Applaud McCain's Proposed Cable Choice Bill
by Jenni Parker and Natalie Harris
June 8, 2006
(AgapePress) - - Pro-family groups are hailing a cable choice bill introduced in the U.S. legislature yesterday by Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona. Known as the CHOICE Act, the bill would allow cable consumers to choose the channels to which they want to subscribe rather than be forced to pay for channel packages predetermined by the cable companies.A number of Christian pro-family ministries and pro-family advocacy organizations, including the Parents Television Council (PTC), Concerned Women for America (CWA), and the Focus on the Family ministry, are applauding Senator McCain for introducing the legislation. These groups believe passage of the CHOICE Act will bring consumers one step closer to having real cable choice and lower their cable costs as well.
Putting Control Over What Families Watch Where It Belongs
Although some cable industry officials argue that offering their customers cable choice will end up raising consumer costs, PTC president L. Brent Bozell agrees with the conclusion of a recent Federal Communications Commission report that cable choice could actually save the consumers money. However, he feels that something else, apart from the issue of cost, has been at stake in the cable choice debate -- that is, control.
It is time, Bozell insists, for the "forced subsidy of graphic and explicit content on basic cable" to end. And the cable industry's current "solutions," such as creating family-oriented programming tiers "do nothing to give families choice and control over the content that comes into their homes," he asserts.
The PTC is pleased that Senator McCain "has introduced legislation that will help provide families with the ability to take and pay for only the cable channels they want," Bozell says. "We support any efforts to bring cable choice to consumers, whether it is brought by the industry, Congress, or by the FCC."
Concerned Women for America is also expressing praise and support for the proposed Senate measure. Lanier Swann, the organization's director of government relations, says the CHOICE Act will at last take control away from the "goliaths of greed" who run the cable companies and put that control where it belongs -- in the hands of cable consumers.
The cable companies make no effort to meet the needs and preferences of their paying customers, Swann contends. "They seem to care only about filling their deep pockets by charging money for programs [many of their customers] don't even watch," she says.
CWA supports the CHOICE Act, Swann explains, because it "gives families another way to protect their children without overbearing government regulation." Cable choice allows parents to monitor the content their children can view by cutting out channels that carry offensive programming, she says. Meanwhile, the cable choice saves customers money by letting them pick the channels they want to purchase "a la carte," instead of paying for the 100-channel line-up cable companies currently offer.
Swann says she and CWA believe families deserve cable choice. The group is urging concerned citizens to contact their legislative representatives, she adds, to tell them they must "take this issue seriously" and must pass this family-friendly and consumer-friendly legislation "as soon as possible."
Could Cable Choice Serve as a Form of Outreach?
Dr. James Dobson, founder and chairman of the ministry Focus on the Family, has also declared his support for cable choice and is calling on the cable industry to work with Congress to craft a viable cable choice plan. He says consumers, not cable executives, should be deciding what kinds of programs their families are able to watch. And Daniel Weiss, Focus on the Family's senior analyst for media and sexuality, says many families are fed up with the indecency on cable TV.
"Parents have been told simply to change the channels or maybe to try and get those channels blocked," Weiss notes. "But the point is, they're still paying for it -- not just losing money out of their own wallet for this material they don't want to watch, but they're also then being forced to subsidize that very material they don't want."
Weiss believes allowing families to pick and choose exactly what programming they want will appeal to many consumers who currently do not have cable. In fact, the media analyst says, catering to such families could very well have the potential to revitalize the cable industry.
