Major cable companies to unveil voter registration campaign

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA: Four of the nation's largest cable companies plan to unveil on Thursday a voter registration campaign aimed at minority voters.

Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc., Cox Communications Inc. and Bright House Networks will start running four public service announcements starting Saturday and leading up to the 2008 primary elections.

The spots will feature several celebrities, including Ana Ortiz of "Ugly Betty," Lou Diamond Phillips of "La Bamba," Malcolm-Jamal Warner, best known for his role as Bill Cosby's son in "The Cosby Show," and comedian Margaret Cho.

The $5 million campaign also includes a Web site, http://www.ourtimetovote.com, and a voters' hot line, 1-866-544-VOTE.

Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/13/america/Cable-Voters.php

[rwheeler31]

1. Why?

[Trillo]

2. Perhaps they're aware that the Internet polls aren't matching

their marketing push?

[harmonicon]

5. creepy, isn't it?

How we suspect there must be an ulterior motive when large companies do the right thing.

[aggiesal]

3. I'm sure the repugs are going nuts over this announcement. n/t

[OHdem10]

4. It may just be a "public service" , giving back. However

increasingly Businesses, even small restaurants, have started their
own grassroots campaigns encouraging their employees to vote.
Around election time, little reminders usually verbally--it
is the Company's best interest to have Republicans in power.
(This could be interpreted, IMO, it is in the best interest
of your job, for you to vote Republicam.

The Cable Campaign could be simply a way of saying thank you
for the use of the air waves.

[McCamy Taylor]

6. It isn't creepy. Martin at the FCC and the RW want to reduce Cable to Whites ONLY programming.

They want to do this will something called A La Carte Do not be fooled. A La Carte is not about saving anyone any money. It can not be since it does not involve taking away the power of cable companies to charge whatever the hell they want. No one is talking about that. All Martin wants to do is to eliminate the so called "bundles" which essentially give consumers channels like Bravo and BET and minority stations and CSPAN and community access stations that have a fewership of 10, (all of them transexual handicapped veterans) for free when people come to sign up for their MTV/Comedy Central/ESP/MSNBC.

The RW knows that if people have to buy their stations one by one, all the minority, gay, environment and women focused channels and the CSPANs and the community access and the educational ones that teach people how their government is run will go out of business. Right now, you don't pay anything for them. They are tossed in there for nothing to make the list look longer. The RW is not happy with the option of cable blocking those channels. It does not want BET in its home.

If the RW has its way, Cable TV will look exactly like Fox, NBC, ABC, CBS. There will be nothing to watch, no minority or divergent views, nothing that could offend any one in power, nothing that questions the status quo.

The real fix is for the government to start subsidizing diverse cable for everyone, since we do not have a decent public broadcast system, like they do in most of western Europe or Japan. There should be a basic bundled cable that includes Cspan, all the educational channels, all the kids channels, quality entertainment channels, channels that reflect a diverse array of opinions and local access. This should be made available to everyone at low cost and to the poor for nothing.

Instead, the RW wants to restrict the main form of information for people who are not yet connected to the internet.

A second agenda for the Republicans is to reward the Phone Companies for their participation in domestic spying by taking cable business away from current cable operators and giving it to the same people who are spying on you illegally.

[Cobalt-60]

7. exercise extreme caution

I'll be 5 days brain dead before I trust a corporation.
They could plan on a convenient mistake that invalidates the votes too late to correct the situation.
My roiling innards tell me that this is a way for them to pre empt Democratic efforts to get new voters registered.

[Thor_MN]

8. With the sane Republicans that exist sick of what the neocons have done

They are worried that an apathetic Republic Party base will not turn out at the polls. I believe their thought process is that if they devout some of they time spent on endless self-promotion, that any increase in voter turnout increases their chances. Can't steal an election if only 1 in 10 people polled identify as Republic or independant.