[IP] Re: Censorship Run Amok: XM, Big Money at the FCC, and the Rest

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Brad Templeton <btm@templetons.com>
Date: May 18, 2007 2:40:56 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave@farber.net>
Cc: spl@ncmir.ucsd.ed
Subject: Re: [IP] Re: Censorship Run Amok: XM, Big Money at the FCC,  
and the Rest

> From: Steve Lamont <spl@ncmir.ucsd.edu>
> The more appropriate question is where do *editorial judgement and
> responsibility begin*?
>
> Mr Weinstein conflates the public and the private sectors when
> suggesting that XM is somehow "censoring" Mr Hughes and Mr Cumina,
> better known as "Opie and Anthony".  What XM is doing is exercising
> editorial judgement.

I think you may have missed Lauren's main point. He's fully aware
of these issues.    He was referring to the liklihood that
XM acted against these men in order to make nice with the FCC
which is considering their merger plans.   Whether XM and
Sirius should merge is one issue, but whether that merger should
be conditional on how much the government likes the content on
either network  is a "erious matter.  (No pun intended.)

Now what I might propose is that if they merge, they turn into
a common carrier selling bandwidth slots and billing services
to anybody who will pay.  (Including amalgamators  like their
old selves.)


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