>>>So why is the US afraid of letting a public service into the mix? Something that would be just granted sufficient funding to be independent... from commercial interests. Which would then finally have some competition.
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>yeah that's just what I want - more government involvement, giving us what's good for us as decided by our betters. Pay for it with taxes taken from people who aren't smart enough to purchase the entertainment they want ...

No, for the people who don't want just entertainment, but there's nothing else but entertainment on the market.

News is not just entertainment. I don't want to be amused by the knews, I want to know what's going on.

Talk shows shouldn't be all just entertainment. I want to hear what the people smarter than me have to say. I don't want them to entertain me, I want to know.

For entertainment, sure, there's supply galore. For anything else, -? where? The commercially available TV content is a monopoly (or tyranny?) of entertainment. There's nothing else.

>I'm actually grateful that Pat Robertson thing is on. Otherwise I would not have known about the coming Rapture. I am making a list of all the evangelicals i know who have nice cars etc. Come the Rapture, when they get beamed up, I'm gonna have me a new car !

Yes, but meanwhile he's lowering the price of my house. Every time he condemns any sin city, we get a hurricane or other stool coming here.