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I am reminded of that old joke … “I survived the [fill in the
blank] and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.” Well, we gave Comcast a
sweetheart deal and all we got was this lousy Channel 78.
In late September of 2005, the Board of Supervisors narrowly agreed
to a financial settlement with the cable giant hammered out by Mayor
Gavin Newsom’s administration. In exchange for dropping legal claims
and granting Comcast a four year extension of their current contract,
the city will receive a one-time payment of $3.5 million to settle
the lawsuit and, over the length of the extension, an additional $4.4
million.
Local media watchdog groups felt blind-sided by the agreement. Sydney
Levy, program director for the Media Alliance of Oakland, said the
city was in the midst of a community-driven process meant to assess
what residents want from Comcast but instead we are now locked into
four more years of a faulty franchise.
$8 million is chump change to Comcast. Just last November, Comcast
signed three of its top executives to new contracts that will
ultimately yield them $9.2 million in salaries and up to $11.5
million in bonuses. $20.7 million for three of their employees vs. $8
million for the city of San Francisco! Gavin would have been better
off polishing up his resume and applying for a job.
The Mayor’s Department of Telecommunications and Information Services
claimed that this was the best deal they could strike. But at the
same time these negotiations were being concluded, the City of
Seattle struck a deal with Comcast that includes a partnership
agreement and funding for a groundbreaking program called the Seattle
Arts Zone, the best senior and low-income discounts in the country, a
capital equipment grant for the public access and government
channels, funds for computers at community technology centers and
free cable modems for community access sites.
But then we did get Channel 78. The current government channel, SFGTV
which broadcasts on Channel 26, has been joined by SFGTV2, which
gives us more Taxi Commission reruns than ever. (Awwww, that was a
cheap shot. Every column needs at least one)! In addition we also get
several hours of low budget original programming, including “S.F.
Legislative Outlook� and “District S.F.� Neither is what I’d call
groundbreaking television.
“District S.F.� is a gauzy travelog type show meant to expose us to
the hidden charms of each of the eleven Supervisorial Districts and
give flattering face time to favored local politicians. Is it any
wonder that the first two districts profiled were those of Board
President Aaron Peskin and Supervisor Fiona Ma? Ma is one of Newsom’s
guaranteed votes and Peskin provided the margin that allowed the
Comcast contract to squeak through. Expect Supervisor Chris Daly’s
District to be featured anytime soon? Certainly not until the Newsom
propaganda machine feels certain that Green Czar Marshall Foster or
the more obscure Jordanna Thigpen are ready to emerge as credible
challengers to Daly. Expect many more trees to be planted in District 6.
“S.F. Legislative Outlook� allows City Hall insiders to ruminate on
current legislation and when Ron Vinson, a former aide to
Mayor Willie Brown ruminates with Wade Crowfoot, Newsom’s Liaison to the
Board of Supervisors and Peskin’s Legislative Aide David Owen over the cozy relationship that’s developing between Newsom and Peskin it is downright incestuous.
What is striking about the programming that our $8 million bought is
that it simply provides us with the government’s take on local
political reality. “Image and message are important in politics,�
wrote the Chronicle’s Rachel Gordon, “and now city officials are
using public money to put their own spin on the work they do at City
Hall — without the filter of professional journalists and citizen
bloggers.�
It is the Committees and Commission hearings that make SFGTV exciting
and the public comment portions are why Channel 26 is so much more
interesting than C-SPAN. I love to watch the Sentinel’s Pat Murphy
and Luke Thomas scramble for their front row seats; I’m amused by how
thoroughly speakers from the Coalition of SF Neighborhoods can garble
the facts; I was so very moved by the testimony on medical marijuana
and on occasion I sit in awe when Sue Hestor strides to the
microphone with an armful of uncomfortable facts.
An expansion of our government channels should also mean an expansion
of the public’s ability to affect the debate. Three minutes is all
you get for public comment. As was the case with the Eastern
Neighborhoods rezoning process, it is a necessary evil city officials
have to endure. They watch impatiently, waiting for the public’s lips
to stop moving, so that they can get back to their work. Well,
they’ve screwed up the Eastern Neighborhoods process so badly — what
originally had a nine month time-line is now in its fourth year –
that maybe they should have done more listening.
The best thing about C-SPAN is the access it gives to those outside
the government. Whether it is the rapid-fire bursts of call-in
comments, the scholarly book reviews or the panels of talking heads,
I come away from C-SPAN having learned something new.
The lousy $8 million we got from Comcast isn’t supposed to be used to
puff up the political careers of those already in power. It should be
used to give some semblance of power to the rest of us.
SFGTV should be about the government … not for the benefit of it.
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Jim Meko is a South of Market activist, currently serving as chair of both the SoMa Leadership Council and the Western SoMa Citizens Planning Task Force and is a member of San Francisco's Entertainment Commission. Here at the Bulldog, of course, he's expressing his own personal opinions. He can be reached at jim.meko@comcast.net.