roundtable: 90's Channel Press Release

roundtable: 90's Channel Press Release

90's Channel Press Release

John Schwartz (schwartz@usa.net)
Fri, 20 Jan 1995 23:38:10 -0700 

Message-Id: <9501210653.AA07882@usa.net>
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 23:38:10 -0700
To: roundtable@cni.org
From: schwartz@usa.net (John Schwartz)
Subject: 90's Channel Press Release


                               PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                          FOR FURTHER INFORMATION         
                                               CONTACT:   
                                               JOHN SCHWARTZ 
                                               (303) 442-2707
                                                               


            TELE-COMMUNICATIONS, INC. EXCLUDES LIBERAL NETWORKS
                    FROM NEW POLITICAL PROGRAM PACKAGE

       Gingrich Stars, But the Liberal 90's Channel is to Get the Ax


     BOULDER, COLORADO, January 20, 1995.  The 90's Channel---the 
nation's only full-time liberal television network---today charged that 
Tele-Communications Inc. is shaping its recently-announced political 
program package to favor powerful right-wing interests.

     "Just look at this biased line-up," said John Schwartz, president 
of the Boulder-based 90's Channel.  "There is National Empowerment 
Television, starring Newt Gingrich and the National Rifle Association; 
The American Conservative Network; and two non-partisan channels---
C-SPAN2 and the American Political Network.  TCI also has long carried 
Pat Robertson's Family Channel, and owns part of it."  

     Denver's Rocky Mountain News recently published details of the new
political programming line-up.  

     TCI has made no arrangements to carry a liberal network.  

     Since it went on the air in 1989, the Boulder, Colorado- based 
90's Channel has carried a diverse mix of controversial programs with 
a liberal point of view.  The network has criticized the Persian Gulf 
war, revealed inhumane prison conditions, reported on President Bush's 
Iran-contra ties, championed the rights of gays and lesbians, backed 
trade union organizers and exposed corporate polluters.  

     Ironically, part of The 90's Channel's cable carriage now 
comes from TCI, which runs the network on seven of its more than 1,000 
systems.  "Far from adding us on more systems, all indications are that 
TCI plans to delete the channel when our current agreement expires 
later this year," said Schwartz.  "We have received no response to our 
repeated inquiries concerning continued carriage, or inclusion in the 
new political programming package."  

     "There is, however, a published account that TCI 'absolutely' will 
not keep the channel once the current contract expires," Schwartz added.  

     In August, 1992, TCI informed The 90's Channel of its intention to 
drop the network on all its systems.  The channel took TCI to court and 
negotiated an agreement for carriage through October 31, 1995.  

     TCI is the world's largest cable operator, and serves approximately
one-quarter of all cable subscribers in the United States.  

     "The public needs to be concerned about TCI's monopoly control 
over information," said Jeff Cohen, the executive director of FAIR, 
the New York-based media watch group.  "While cable often offers 50 
channels or more, the cable company has almost absolute discretion over 
what is carried and what isn't.  The fact that TCI is using its control 
for ideological purposes is very disturbing."   

     "This is not the first instance where a cable company has abused 
its monopoly power," observed Jeff Chester, executive director of The 
Center for Media Education, a Washington-based public interest group.  
"For instance, it has been widely reported that TCI and other cable 
operators have even blocked the plans of other media giants like NBC 
and Fox to create all-news channels which would compete with the Cable 
News Network because CNN is owned in large part by cable companies.  
But here we have a blatant instance of a cable company's thwarting the 
competition of ideas, and favoring one ideology over another.  This 
control over political communications is a direct threat to American 
democracy."    
                             
Copyright 1995 Denver Area Educational Telecommunications Consortium, Inc.  


This press release may be freely reposted, as long as its entire contents 
are transmitted.

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