Public Access TV, All Want and No Need, Faux Support

According to a story over at PortCityDaily.com, “Nearly 80 percent of respondents in a recent City of Wilmington survey said the city should secure a public access television channel that residents and organizations may use to express themselves.”

Hmm. . that’s just plain interesting. . . . and there’s more, “Almost 72 percent said they would support the use of local tax dollars for the channel, and about 65 percent said they would tune in daily or weekly.”

Really?  So, 70 of city voters outright rejected a plan to build a baseball stadium but support using taxpayer dollars to support a TV station?  If you look at how the survey was done, a lot more makes sense.  It was an online survey that the city posted in November that received virtually no press and was unknown by almost everyone except supporters.

Once again, the city failed to take a scientific survey and will be making a decision based upon a select group of folks who desire taxpayer dollars be used to support a TV station that we don’t need.  And primary supporter Stave Lee’s attempt to make this a constitutional issue is rather odd as well.

Steve Lee, head of the Wilmington-based Southeastern Alliance for Community Change (SEACC), said he’s aware of the upcoming city council discussion and is hoping locals before then will “stand up for the First Amendment” and expand known support for the proposal.

This isn’t about the 1st Amendment at all, it’s about people who don’t want to pay for time on radio or tv to have access for their personal whims at the expense of taxpayers.  One would have thought the city would have learned a lesson from the drubbing it took in November after trusting that public sentiment was on their side with their previous surveys.  Here’s hoping that city manager Sterline Cheatham doesn’t want another embarrassment.

The Mysterious McIntyre Speaks

Con. Mike McIntyre’s (D-Robeson) vote against the multi-trillion dollar spending spree was a good one, but his inability to let his constituents know clearly where he stands at any given point in time is still mysterious.

(WWAY) “I am looking forward to a more comprehensive solution being brought forth and together in a bipartisan fashion to stop all this excess government spending and to get our national debt under control,” McIntyre said. “I’m hoping that will occur in the next 60 to 90 days.” But in the meantime, McIntyre said he does not support the Senate’s plan his House colleagues adopted. ”It will add almost $4 trillion to the nation’s debt,” McIntyre said. “It delays spending cuts and does not provide for the comprehensive tax reform that can help our small businesses create job.”

Once again, lots of rhetoric, but nothing of detail.  McIntyre won this year by just over 600 votes, he is officially a democrat, but his votes are often inconsistent with his party.  He usually portrays that as being independent, but there isn’t a cohesive way to assert that either.  Here’s hoping that we’ll eventually understand where McIntyre stands on how spending should be cut when he champions earmarks, how taxes should be reformed when he hasn’t put a single idea on the table and how we solve the problem when we, as citizens, have no idea where he stands until after he takes a vote.