Regulators Mull Al Jazeera’s Future In Vermont
Burlington Telecom Has Carried Controversial Network Since 2006
By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 5/27/2008 7:28:00 AM
Regulators will meet Tuesday in Burlington, Vt. to hear testimony from consumers there on the future local carriage of Al Jazeera, the English version of the Arabic news channel.
The channel has been carried by the municipally owned cable system, Burlington Telecom, since December of 2006. According to a report in the Burlington Free Press, the cable operation picked up coverage of the controversial network, which is offered free to carriers, but no contract was ever signed.
Al Jazeera, which participated in its first Cable Show last week, has not gained much traction among U.S. telecommunications providers. According to the network's website, the channel is offered by Globcast World TV; Buckeye Cable in Ohio; Washington Cable in Washington D.C. and the broadband portals Islamicity and Jump TV.
In Burlington, criticism has been growing louder recently about the existence of the channel on the local cable system. Two city councilors, Greg Eppler-Wood and Paul Decelles, appeared on local access television in a discussion with free speech supporters recently, with the regulators arguing the channel should be dropped.
Eppler-Wood is the chairman of two of the three local committees which oversee the operations of Burlington Telecom.
Those committees, the Cable Advisory Committee and the Burlington Telecom Advisory Committee, are staging the joint meeting Tuesday at 4 p.m.
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Well said SAS.
JB - 5/28/2008 9:21:00 AM EDT -
It is appalling to think that things have actually come to this - whatever happened to free speech and freedom of the press ? Could it be that in order to promote their right wing views opponents of al Jazeera in Vermont feel the need to censor the free press and media and muzzle differing and divergent views. Nothing on al Jazeera English is anywhere as provocative and inciteful as the matter on CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck Show, Fox's O Reilly Factor, not to mention the hate sermons of the Club 700 and TNT, and yet Burlington Cable sees fit to censor one of the most respected and professional names in contemporary journalism that is unafraid to show the truth about world affairs. Sadly ironic and richly hypocritical.
SAS - 5/27/2008 2:14:00 PM EDT
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