Comment: Even the New York Times columnist Joe Nocera thought it would be a good idea for the FCC’s Tom Wheeler and Congressional folks to arrive at something resembling a compromise on net neutrality without Title II. His take: “HeHeHeHeHe!”
I concur. A painful belly laugh.
But then! Holy Moly! Something resembling compromise … STELA turned into STELAR and OMG! the Senate passed it for the President’s signature. And now I can continue to get Denver TV stations on DirecTV (no DISH here, so no worries about losing the Broncos). That’s a big deal because I’ve got the Continental Divide between me and the transmitters. STELAR gives me another legal five years.
Meanwhile, eight years of intransigence from the Grand Old Party has proven that words count. The relentless, visceral resentment of the very fact of this Presidency has changed the way most Americans view the world and created a Washington of semi-permanent gridlock. Of course, all the wars and flashpoints in the world haven’t exactly made for a copacetic planet … not to mention the competency of managing the vast Federal government.
Houston – indeed, all of us -- we have a problem.
Going to be an interesting two years … and we’ve already got the first official exploratory presidential committee. Gee.
The upside? More ads for broadband, broadcast and cable. Whoopee!
Onward ...
“The Revolutionary Evolution of the Media” – Chapter 1, Part 2
This is a book in progress … how a changing world has made media what it is today … Or, from a grunt to too much connectivity. Last week featured the initial part of Chapter 1.
The word or the symbol?
Still a good question … but if you buy (as I, by the way, do) the arguments made in Steven Pinker’s The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language,you’ll come to understand that language is an inherently human characteristic. It is an instinct that is unique to humans (not that other species don’t have their own idiosyncratic aspects) and part of the structure of the brain. As Charles Darwin first opined, language ability is “an instinctive tendency to acquire an art.” Namely, to communicate.
Continue reading Chapter 1, Part 2 . Next week the book will continue with a look at how the Roman Empire’s road-building changed the shape of communications.
In an almost 50-year career writing and reporting on media, Paul S. Maxwell started and/or ran some 45-plus publications ranging from CATV Newsweekly to Colorado Magazine to CableVision to Multichannel News to CableFAX and The BRIDGE Suite of daily newsletters and research publications. In between publishing stints, Maxwell served as an advisor and/or consultant to a number of major media companies and media start-ups including running a unit of MCI and managing a partnership of TCI and McGraw-Hill.
Send any and all criticisms, suggestions, rants, threats, corrections, etc. to him at: cablemax@mac.com. He has a new Web site coming soon!
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