[Wefta] Re: [Peace-discuss] military recruitment on WEFT (!)

[Chas. 'Mark' Bee]

Alfred Kagan wrote:

> Doug,
>
> I think you are confusing censorship with selecting appropriate PSAs 
> for WEFT's audience.  The military get lots of free advertising 
> elsewhere.  They are hardly censored.  We don't need to play their 
> advertisements for death and destruction. 


      Dude, these are *not* reasons that would keep it from being 
censorship.  Apparently another injection of reality is needed here.  
Your motives for shutting this down, though perhaps honorable, are also 
political ones - that's censorship, regardless of what happens 'elsewhere'.

   I'd like to suggest that anyone who wants to affect WEFT's handling 
of PSAs come to the station and volunteer to handle PSAs.  Trust me, 
it's not very difficult.  In fact, you could say there's an 'open-door' 
policy.  And as a Board and PC member, I myself don't *ever* plan to 
knuckle under to outside pressure from a special interest group over 60 
seconds of air time.

   And in fact, if appropriate channels had been used instead of this 
unfortunate but ever-popular 'outing WEFT' thing, the PSA would probably 
be gone just as quickly.  I reviewed it last night, I think it has calls 
to action in it, and I recommended its removal, strictly on the basis of 
its legality when played by a non-profit.  It's being removed from the 
PSA box, I hear, and once it gets a critical listening at the PC meeting 
I imagine that's it.

   Viola.  The system works.  And WEFT didn't have to silence someone's 
voice just because someone else didn't like it - which is a victory for 
freedom no matter how you slice it.  And if you come get a show at WEFT, 
we won't censor you either.  WEFT is not and must not be in that 
business regardless of outside influence.

   -cmb, anti-war bigmouth, free speech broadcasting advocate

p.s.  The station takes PSAs from just about anybody, and I'm sure we'd 
be glad to have yours.  There are specific FCC rules which apply (like 
no calls to action), so please do be sure to *find out what they are* 
before production in order to avoid unnecessary delays.  I don't know 
for sure, but I think Sandra, WEFT's PC coordinator, can supply these on 
request.  Or I can.  Or if that's not fast enough, there's always that 
wonderful resource, www.fcc.gov.  We do have to take orders from them, 
they have all the guns.  ;)