How could it have come to this? How broken and inept must
our governmental and corporate institutions be that, within the span of only a
month, both Packers and Badgers fans were unable to get access to two of the
most important games of the season? On the surface, this appears to be merely a
petty, short-term issue.  However,
its root cause helps to expose how both serious and simple issues in our local
and national governments never seem to be solved.

This issue recently appeared to come to a head with the introduction of a bill
last week that aims to prevent blackout areas for important games such as
Thursday's Packers-Cowboys matchup and last month's Badgers-Buckeyes game.
Legislators proposed the Fair Access to Networks Legislation — or FAN
legislation — which would create third-party arbitration to help solve the
ongoing disputes that led to the blackouts between cable providers and both the
NFL Network and the Big Ten Network. Both channels believe that their
programming should be included in basic cable packages instead of more
expensive and exclusive sports tier packages. This basic cable placement would
mandate increases in already sharply rising subscription rates for all
customers — whether they want the added football programming or not — and
prevent the cable companies from receiving an added fee.

On the surface, this seems like a quality initiative for the government to take
on. However, in an interview with The Badger Herald, University of Wisconsin
telecommunications professor Barry Orton ridiculed the effort as nothing more
than political posturing. "The bill can't force arbitration on either part; if
one doesn't want to, then the bill has no impact."

But why, in the face of a myriad of angry students, customers and citizens, would
the government engage in political theater as opposed to a reasonable effort to
solve the problem? The dilemma stems from the fact that the government lifting
up the rock of cable regulation would reveal a litany of corruption underneath.
This is perfectly exemplified by Madison's current cable regulation that forces
would-be competitors to pay for a multitude of services and fees that only a
company planning to obtain a monopoly would agree to. It is the removal of such
competition that has prevented Charter from being compelled to stop raising its
prices or improve its awful customer service. It is the constituents of these
government officials who fall prey to what is essentially an undeclared
governmental tax on cable usage.

It is this corruption that allowed University of Wisconsin officials to hold
the Badgers-Buckeyes game hostage. They tried to focus student anger toward
Charter for not including the Big Ten Network as part of its basic cable plan,
yet they did not address the fact that the rise of everyone's cable prices is
not justified for such a niche channel. The Big Ten Network encompasses only 11
Midwestern schools and includes just a few premier matchups, yet UW officials
still tried to glean an absurd profit at the expense of all cable subscribers
merely by scapegoating Charter, as opposed to changing the price to one the
market would support. Charter's indifference to customer concerns has made the
university's scapegoating tactics possible, while the role of the Legislature
remains in the shadows.

This chain of corruption is paralleled almost exactly by the NFL Network, which
allowed access to last week's highly anticipated Packers-Cowboys game to less
than 40 percent of the country. The only recourse it suggests is for fans to
switch to a satellite provider, yet it ignores the multitudes who either cannot
set up a satellite where they live or who cannot afford to have separate cable
and Internet providers. All of this occurs without an acknowledgement of how
the Federal Communications Commission continues to refuse to more tightly
regulate the cable industry, with FCC Chairman Kevin Martin waving off a recent
attempt just last Tuesday by claiming that more study is needed.

Collusion between special interest groups and all forms of government hurt
everyone except the companies and politicians, yet this infestation of
corruption in democratic government continues unabated. It has long since
become clear to me that propaganda events like our local FAN bill are but a
small part of a national trend that allows for the obfuscation of nearly all
real issues. Corruption runs rampant among all levels of what is supposed to be
our democracy, yet our local and national governments merely continue a shell
game of name-calling and bouts of righteous indignation.

Until the issue of special interest groups making secret deals behind closed
doors is adequately exposed and quashed, all sorts of politicians will be able
to get away with holding loyalties that harm their constituents. And just
think, if they are willing to enrage hordes of Wisconsin football fans to
protect such loyalties, what are they willing to do for issues far less
transparent?

Harry Waisbren ([email protected])
is a senior majoring in communication arts.