roundtable: Re: Content is the cargo of truth

roundtable: Re: Content is the cargo of truth

Re: Content is the cargo of truth

Jeff Briggs (jbriggs@capital.edu)
Sat, 25 Mar 1995 01:18:39 +0500 

Date: Sat, 25 Mar 1995 01:18:39 +0500
From: jbriggs@capital.edu (Jeff Briggs)
Message-Id: <9503250618.AA10166@athena.capital.edu>
To: roundtable@cni.org
Subject: Re: Content is the cargo of truth


Matt - I agree with your comments about cable as a utility, and that 
free expression should extend to video. My documentary about Argentine
charango player Jaime Torres ("El Charanguero") will be fed to public
TV stations around the country due to the kind help of Terry Dugas on
this list.

     But this is a dream that seemed impossible for several decades
of producing documentaries - a number for the Columbus (Ohio) 
Metropolitan Library (including one I was told to do on then State 
Senator John Kasich) - all of which had cultural, artistic, or 
multicultural themes and were hence considered marginally commercial.

     While I helped to found the public access operation in Columbus
(ACTV) and have produced a Spanish-language show with my Argentinian
wife for 8 years, these shows have been seen by hundreds rather than
100os or millions of people. 

     "Our mission [which you so aptly write] " or democratizing
and enriching television by "educating, informing, and inspiring the
public"[that should read 'of" above] is one I have believed in for
many years, but due to lack of capital or access to high-end facilities
and especially having no realistic access to national distribution it
has been thwarted for years.

     The new I-Bahn should include national and international public
access for producers - if and when they solve the technical problems
of transmitting video with high quality. Meanwhile, 30 million people
will watch Seinfeld each week, which is a show with slight sylistic 
charm, and no cultural, educational, or artistic value.

Jeff Briggs
<jbriggs@capital.edu>

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