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GOP Candidate Paul: A Cable Guy?
October 4, 2007
Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), a quirky libertarian physician who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, said Wednesday that he raised $5 million in the third quarter, double the amount in the prior quarter, for his campaign war chest.
The money surge, which caught some political pundits by surprise, might give Paul a shot at being mentioned in the same breath as the frontrunners: former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, former Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).
Paul’s performance on the campaign trail might be a signal to deep-pocketed cable executives that now is the time to give him a close look. They might like what they see. In September, Paul introduced a bill that would repeal the 1992 Cable Act’s must carry provisions, which enable every full-power TV station to demand cable carriage.
“These federal ‘must carry’ mandates deny cable companies the ability to provide the programming their customers’ desire. Decisions about what programming to carry on a cable system should be made by consumers, not federal bureaucrats,” said Paul, a 72-year-old OB/GYN who has delivered more than 4,000 babies.
Some cable big shots might decide to snub Paul because his bill would require cable operators to obtain permission to carry commercial TV stations.
Paul’s bill (H.R. 3602), the Television Consumer Freedom Act, would reinstate some of EchoStar’s court-lost legal authority to distribute Big Four network signals beyond their home markets. For the consumer electronics industry, Paul’s bill would ban the Federal Communications Commission from requiring the installation of digital tuners in TV sets, which Paul says can add $250 to the price of a set.
“While some television manufactures and broadcasters may believe they will benefit from this government-imposed price increase, they will actually lose business as consumers refrain from purchasing new TVs because of the government mandated price increase,” Paul said.
Posted by Ted Hearn on October 4, 2007 | Comments (1)
