roundtable: Re: OP-ED ON TV - PUBLIC

roundtable: Re: OP-ED ON TV / PUBLIC

Re: OP-ED ON TV / PUBLIC

Jeff Briggs (jbriggs@capital.edu)
Tue, 17 Jan 1995 02:57:08 +0500 

Date: Tue, 17 Jan 1995 02:57:08 +0500
From: jbriggs@capital.edu (Jeff Briggs)
Message-Id: <9501170757.AA27562@athena.capital.edu>
To: roundtable@cni.org
Subject: Re: OP-ED ON TV / PUBLIC


Re a call to "cut the knot" of this entangled thread. 

     I am guilty of enjoying the roustabout of argument, but the 
conflict is about ideas, like Plato's Dialogues, if you won't snicker 
too hard. There is nothing wrong with these debates because they are 
the lifeblood of democracy, and the counter arguments keep us all on 
our toes. I have learned from a number of replies, including Conan's 
and your current one - but I still do not agree that we can blur the 
contaries, or that we should. 

     This *is* the free speech I harp about - at a much more intense 
and interactive level than in the early days of this democracy. If 
your argument is superior, I will change my position. This is going 
on in subtle ways with all of us, and at least the extremes are 
communicating. If that can persist, and if in some way the Congress 
can mirror our span of views, then I am confident that my worst fears 
of the death of our democracy and of free speech on all media of 
communication - including the revolutionary idea that not only the 
wealthy and well-connected have access to mass media - an idea which 
has never been seriously entertained, inspite of talk shows and Oprah 
and PBS - will not come to pass.

     I do listen to those who oppose my views carefully. I am not just 
hearing my own voice, but yours too. Let's not arbitarally cut anything - 
that's counter to the notion that the cure for bad speech is more speech -
which is what public access TV is all about, and (I hope) the new 
concatenations will also include. 

     Discussions ebb, flow, and evolve in their own way. When no one 
has anything else to say it will die a graceful and respectable death.

Jeff Briggs
jbriggs@capital.edu

[CNI Home Page]