FORTH WORTH COUNCIL
SLAUGHTERS PUBLIC ACCESS
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TEXANS PROTEST!

LETTER FROM BISHOP JAMES BROWN







CITY GOVERNMENT AFRAID OF FREE SPEECH
Fort Worth Council Cutting off Public Access from the People

CHANNEL 46 IN JEOPARDY

A large number of Public Access broadcasters on Ft. Worth cable open channel 46 are in a battle with the Ft Worth City Council now. Unannounced, the Council voted to "reformat" open ch 46 and totally eliminate Public Access. The other 4 channels are for Government and Educational and will not allow Public Access producers to create or air their programs. The final dateline for the move is February 1, 2001 for the "convenience" of those who formerly enjoyed their Freedom of Speech in Fort Worth, Texas.

[Editor's note: Apparently Forth Worth has dubbed Public Access as "Open Channel"]















Dear [Fort Worth, Texas] Councilman (Landslide Clyde)

Thank you for your comments about my letter. I really admire your courage in asking the questions about solicitation. It was a very valid question and I hope I would have asked if I were in your chair. As I said in my letter however, as a group, the current broadcasters on OPEN 46 are some of the only truly altruistic broadcasters anywhere. I am concerned that these pillars of our community are STILL being EXCLUDED from the table even after Council's action on Tuesday. Nonetheless, I must respectfully disagree with your position that this is not a free speech issue. Where else, on Cable or Broadcast media, can the average citizen speak to the citizens of Ft. Worth? If OPEN 46 is silenced, where will free speech occur? If the City owned stations are reduced to City approved information and programs, isn't that what we HATED and RAILED against in communist dictatorships? I think we called it censorship. Did we not hold up the freedom to exchange ideas without official review as a hallmark of a FREE society? Sir, if this is NOT a free speech issue - what is? The religious diversity on OPEN 46 is established - Atheists, Buddhists, Methodists, Mohammedans, Baptists, Pentecostals, Independents, Metaphysical Scientists, Catholics (Mother Angelica no less), Apostolics, Metropolitan Community (Gay & Lesbian), Seventh Day Adventists, Baha'i, and other sects which I can't identify are ALL CURRENTLY BROADCASTING on OPEN 46. Anglo, Hispanic, and African American programs illustrate the ethnic diversity of our city. We agree!!!! There should be more diversity and better quality on the cable channels, all the cable channels! Removing the vast religious diversity which already exists on OPEN 46 and replacing it with limited educational diversity from unnamed and unknown sources is NOT the answer. There is PLENTY of room for other groups and individuals to program material on OPEN 46 and CLOSED 45 NOW! In fact, I believe there is more unique programming on OPEN 46 than on TCC's own educational channel. Further, every programmer on OPEN 46 must have at least one (1) cable subscriber to sponsor their program. If the city ever runs out of room for NEW programming, perhaps increasing the required number of sponsors would insure access for the people who are watching. Lastly, in a letter to the Mayor and Council dated July 13th of this year, the city's own Cable Programming Advisory Committee responded to a Council request for them to review the "Blue Ribbon" Committee recommendations. In that report they said "The City should NOT eliminate Channel 46 as an Open Access Channel. We recommend continuing the open access concept and improving the technical quality of Channel 46 programs...". The recommendations of the Blue Ribbon committee were stacked against open access because the "outside agitators" which invaded the process had an agenda. The only thing "Blue Ribbon" about the committee report is the color of our city as the ribbon chokes the oxygen out of our free speech. Mr. Picht, help us!! We are still being frozen from the table. This matter needs to be reviewed from scratch. Did you know about the Cable Advisory Board report? Did you know that they DID NOT agree with the conclusions of the "Blue Ribbon" committee? Did you hear Jill Darden's (a member of the blue ribbon committee) disagree with tenor of the blue ribbon report in the letter which she read to council on Tuesday? Did you know that NONE of the "Blue Ribbon" outside experts has Open Access in their cities? I am SURE Council received only partial information. There were problems with the process and the conclusions are therefore tainted. TCC's review will NOT deal with ANY open access issues. Therefore, Council CANNOT rely on their (TCC's) input for direction. TCC will ONLY deal with EDUCATIONAL program access! All we ask is that the Council give this matter a full, fair, and complete review. We don't want you to count dimpled or pregnant chads, but the results of this process have clearly been tainted by some unregistered voters and the exclusion of some soldiers votes. Help US! Bring back the members of the Cable Advisory Board, the Blue Ribbon Committee, interested citizens, and of course the Open 46 broadcast community and lets come away with an acceptable solution to keep Fort Worth an inclusive community that reverses injustice and loves free speech. We want improvements!! WE AGREE it should be better, but killing the inclusive active part will not improve program diversity or interest.
[Bishop James Brown, Fort Worth citizen]