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Bill: Return to Normalcy V1.2
Details
Submitted by[?]: Free Reform Coalition (FRP)
Status[?]: defeated
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: January 2067
Description[?]:
| The age of the television and internet has made radio obsolete. The internet has become the medium of choice for the expression of all ideas. We propose the elimination of public television and radio. In exchange we propose that a public news website be created . (ooc: in the vein of th BBC Online) |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change Radio stations.
Old value:: The government subsidises a national radio station for educational and informational purposes; other private non-subsidised radio stations are allowed.
Current: The government subsidises a national radio station for educational and informational purposes; other private non-subsidised radio stations are allowed.
Proposed: All radio stations are private.
Article 2
Proposal[?] to change Television stations.
Old value:: The government subsidises a national TV station for educational and informational purposes; other private non-subsidised TV stations are allowed.
Current: The government subsidises a national TV station for educational and informational purposes; other private non-subsidised TV stations are allowed.
Proposed: All television media are private.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 15:06:00, June 06, 2005 CET | From |  Free Reform Coalition (FRP) | To | Debating the Return to Normalcy V1.2 |
| Message | The FRP will support a public website, not radio or TV. it is a good compromise, both saving money and allowing for easy comparison to the views of other people. |
| Date | 16:32:39, June 06, 2005 CET | From | Protectorate Party | To | Debating the Return to Normalcy V1.2 |
| Message | We can see how this would be a good idea in a few yrs, perhaps currently move away from one medium, say TV, keep the other for those who do not yet have access to the internet. As the internet spreads a bit more through Malivia phase the other one out as well. |
| Date | 17:17:24, June 06, 2005 CET | From | Free Reform Coalition (FRP) | To | Debating the Return to Normalcy V1.2 |
| Message | it is 2063, we think its reasonable to assume everyone has the internet, in england it is already past 60%, in the states it is a little higher. the only reason it is not higher is because older people have not been using the internet that much. |
| Date | 20:02:02, June 06, 2005 CET | From | Protectorate Party | To | Debating the Return to Normalcy V1.2 |
| Message | OOC: don't go by dates as they are not related to the RW. For this reason there will most likely be a independent dating system after the reset. IC: we would like radio kept as it is a more portable method of communication then being linked to the internet. It is therefore more accessible to all, in a wide range of circumstances. |
| Date | 21:43:23, June 06, 2005 CET | From | Leviathan Party | To | Debating the Return to Normalcy V1.2 |
| Message | DIsgusting; even ardent neo-liberals have begrudgingly admitted the value of public radio and television. The FRP has to look to the right to goosestep to the book burning, we're sure. |
| Date | 10:45:58, June 07, 2005 CET | From | Free Reform Coalition (FRP) | To | Debating the Return to Normalcy V1.2 |
| Message | levp, you're insults are so boring now, surely your small imagination can think up something better than constant nazi references? perhaps something like this " aack! FRP, we are tired of your constant use of evidence, your excellent debating skills, we hate losing to you, can't you just let us win the argument for once, its gettting hard to think up insults after we lose!" |
| Date | 07:28:36, June 10, 2005 CET | From | Leviathan Party | To | Debating the Return to Normalcy V1.2 |
| Message | ooc: this is ooc because i don't want to assume anything about Malivia, but this point deserves to be made nonetheless. i wonder how much public radio or television that the FRP or PP players listen/watch, because there is a substantive difference between the kind and quality of the reporting you get from public and private news agencies. today, i listened to an almost hour long report on NPR charting the whole Vioxx issue, and they didn't spend an hour arguing about it or giving spin, they spent the entire hour giving information. they laid out a timeline, read internal Merck memos they uncovered, interviewed doctors who had been paid by Merck to give recomendantions, Merck corporate officers, heads of medical schools etc etc. it was, amazingly, news! no opinion, no spin, just all the information they could uncover on the case. it was amazing, and unique to public radio; for profit radio makes its money with loud mouths who are there to entertain, not inform, and cable news is the same. this is a consequence that is endemic of the attitude that news is a for-profit enterprise, an attitude that did not exist until the 80's, which was after Turner launched CNN. this isn't necessarily bad a priori, but it is bad if not counterbalanced with news outlets that still focus on news as a public service, which is why i'm not campaigning to nationalize all news sources in Malivia. so work that into an ic post if you like, or don't, whatever. if you can't see the social value of a news service that doesn't have to turn a profit and consistently delivers in depth reporting (something cable news still fails to do, be it CNN or SKY), then that's your problem, not mine. |
| Date | 11:26:46, June 10, 2005 CET | From | Free Reform Coalition (FRP) | To | Debating the Return to Normalcy V1.2 |
| Message | Those are all fair points levp, those are the standard arguments for public radio and television. but an important thing to know about NPR and PBS in america is that they are private corporations that run on a non-profit donation basis. they have pledge drives and they receive support from various sources. pbs even has ads! (just not in between shows) The point being that they are self run organizations that have not support ties to the government. One of the big dangers of public television and radio is that it becomes the lapdog to the government in power. that sort of swing is dangerous. Another reason for having public radio and tv is to get minority opinions and viewpoints broadcasted when they would not otherwise. Let us look at the BBC as a case in point. In england there are only 5 terrestrial TV channels, (and untill 1997 only 4) of those channels two of them are BBC run and owned. In a country with so few terrestrial channels there may be a need for public television and radio. But consider our modern times, getting cable or satellite television is free in most cases, effectively increasing the number of channels one could get from about 10 to about 500 (or more in a lot of cases) the increase in different approaches, viewpoints and ideas has made it unnecesary for a channel like the bbc to be the protector of minority viewpoints. (and as an aside, statistically speaking the minorities that public media represent actually use cable and satellite to get their message out now) So what does that mean public media should be about? honest reporting? balanced reporting? civic reporting? these are all different but share similar qualities. We agree with LevP, the advantage of NPR is its ability to produce news unfettered by advertising bias. but that does not mean it has NO bias, it just means that bias doesn't exist. there are many types: editorial, journalistic and ownership. In any case, television and radio have their problems: time limits etc. that we think can be resolved but putting it all into a single internet package. In an internet package, there is the opportunity for sidebars, in order for readers to get more information, there are fewer space constraints: all the info can go in if appropriate. there is also the opportunity to publish more articles than can be shown on a news program or radio show. which is critical. these are just some of the ideas. In essence, what it amounts to is that the european public media has a different role than it used to and public media in the US is not state run, which is our biggest concern. working in that framework, we would be willing to find some compromise. |
| Date | 07:23:17, June 12, 2005 CET | From | Social Republican Party | To | Debating the Return to Normalcy V1.2 |
| Message | By questioning the funding of MBC, and MBC radio, you are making them cater to the government. If we lock in thier funding for a long time, then they will not need or want to cater to the government. |
| Date | 14:25:59, June 12, 2005 CET | From | Leviathan Party | To | Debating the Return to Normalcy V1.2 |
| Message | "The point being that they are self run organizations that have not support ties to the government." ooc: so not true; there's a bill before Congress right now to end government funding for producing public tv shows, like Sesame Street. either way, either bring this to a vote or let it die, no one is changing their minds on this. |
| Date | 10:43:06, June 13, 2005 CET | From | Free Reform Coalition (FRP) | To | Debating the Return to Normalcy V1.2 |
| Message | OOC: do you know how sesame street makes its money? from sales of all the toys. The same goes for all the big children's programs that the BBC sends to the states, they are free because the bbc knows it can makes money from toy sales. that's why there is a bill in congress, it doesn't need the support anymore. Also to clarify, i meant government being the deciding factor in whether the station lives or dies. |
| Date | 05:46:42, June 15, 2005 CET | From | Protectorate Party | To | Debating the Return to Normalcy V1.2 |
| Message | OOC: sorry for not responding for so long swamped with work. But to address the question made by the LevP. I don't have TV so don't watch public TV. My radio flips between two stations. 90.3FM Nashville's public radio and when it switches to music at 9 am I switch to 1430 Nashville's AM public radio which will have news programs for the rest of the day. (Except for Fresh Air, I rarely can take that since it so often is about non issues such as an actors personal life) I have little exposure to TV currently thus cannot say how Public supported stations are currently, but believe that there should be support for a public financed outlet. I feel that TV is being replaced more and more by the internet which gives an opportunity for much better programming. IC: We are against however the removal of all government funded outlets, as we have stated we support continued funding for radio. |
| Date | 06:29:30, June 15, 2005 CET | From | Protectorate Party | To | Debating the Return to Normalcy V1.2 |
| Message | We will support this since we feel that returning funding to radio will not be hard to pass. |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||||
| yes | Total Seats: 27 | ||||
| no |
Total Seats: 50 | ||||
| abstain |
Total Seats: 23 |
| Random fact: You can view who's online (i.e. been active the last 10 minutes) at the bottom of the menu (either at the top or the side). |
| Random quote: "The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too." - Oscar Levant |