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The Nashville Post

Naifeh on cable-AT&T battle
Nashville Post
Ken Whitehouse
02/04/08

Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives Jimmy Naifeh was joined by two Republican colleagues in his office to guarantee to the media that "there will be a bill brought before the state legislature" in the ongoing battle of AT&T vs. Cable.

Columbian Missourian

City to pay out $200,000 a year for CAT operating costs
By EMILIE RUSCH
February 5, 2008 | 12:07 p.m. CST

COLUMBIA — Funding problems could finally be a thing of the past for Columbia Access Television after the City Council voted early Tuesday morning in favor of a five-year contract that would pay out $200,000 a year for operating costs starting next fiscal year.

from: The Tennessean

Naifeh wants AT&T, Comcast to agree
Governor doubts rival cable businesses will compromise
By NAOMI SNYDER • Staff Writer • February 5, 2008

House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh and a bipartisan group of legislators vowed Monday to press ahead on legislation to allow AT&T to sell video services across Tennessee, despite doubts that a deal can be worked out with rival cable providers.

from: The Tennessean

AT&T's stand against franchising rules is potentially discriminatory

By BISHOP GEORGE PRICE • February 3, 2008

Almost a half-century ago, the battle for civil rights and equal opportunity raged throughout the communities of Tennessee.

from: Governing.com

Unscripted Ending
The picture gets blurry for public access television.

By JOSH GOODMAN

Public Access 2.0
• Watch clips of shows on the "new" public access, YouTube

Every Monday evening for more than a decade in Portage, Indiana, Gordon Bloyer stirred up trouble. The middle-aged, mustachioed Bloyer used his 6:30 p.m. television talk show to lambast elected officials in the city of 35,000 on the shore of Lake Michigan. Not only were Portage politicians powerless to cancel the Gordon Bloyer Show — although at times they tried — they also were, in a sense, subsidizing Bloyer's attacks on them: His show appeared on public access television. "People would get all upset," Bloyer says, sounding satisfied. "So I figured that's good."

from: Knox News

Bredesen questions tactics in cable-permitting fight
Governor says he may get involved in contentious proposal

Associated Press
Friday, February 1, 2008

CHATTANOOGA - Gov. Phil Bredesen is questioning the approach by House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh in the fight to change cable-permitting rules in Tennessee to encourage broadband access around the state.

from: Orlando Sentinel

Leaders fight move of government channels to upper end of cable TV dial

David Damron
Sentinel Staff Writer
February 1, 2008

Orange County Commissioner Teresa Jacobs is launching a statewide fight to stop cable companies from pushing government channels to the higher reaches of their digital-channel lineups.

from: Palo Alto Daily News

Broadcasting a warning for television
Friday Feb 1

Media advocate: Public programming needs to be protected

By Kristina Peterson / Daily News Staff Writer
Congress got a taste of Palo Alto's civic engagement this week when a local media coordinator flew across the country to testify about the importance of preserving public access programming.

from: Flint journal

Public Access Advocates Hoping to Hold on to Cable Channel

January 30, 2008
By Joe Lawlor

He’s a slouching, white-haired government critic who shouts out of your television set and shakes his hands to make a point.

But Bob Leonard, the former Genesee County prosecutor, no longer appears on Comcast Channel 17.

from: ZDNet

January 31st, 2008
Tornado destroyed woman’s house: then she gets this $2,025.45 bill from Time Warner Cable
Posted by Russell Shaw @ 3:21 pm

From Wisconsin’s Kenosha News comes this story that after a January 7 tornado demolished her home, and ensuing rain and snow made it a bear to fix, a woman from the area has received a $2,025.45 bill from her (now former, well duh) cable television service.