My complaining about the FCC and free speech infringement does not mean I don’t realize how much free speech we really have. Here’s why our First Amendment is spectacular.
… Sirius Canada, which plans to start beaming to your car and home before the end of this year, has no plans to include Stern and his no-holds-barred morning show that includes the likes of
Stuttering John[ed. note: my strike-through], Baba Booey and butt-bongo stunts.
…So, Sirius Canada, isn’t this like acquiring the Pittsburgh Penguins and deciding you don’t need Sidney Crosby?
“Well, what if Sidney Crosby was going to be arrested and put in jail within two weeks?” said Gary Slaight, the CEO of Standard Broadcasting, which co-owns Sirius Canada along with the CBC.
“The CRTC, who we are licensed to, would eventually force us to take Stern down, because we have standards we have to abide by in this country when you own a broadcasting licence.”
…“When we applied for a licence, the CRTC pushed us about this,” he said. “(Stern) was definitely a topic of conversation. We (Standard) are a big broadcaster and have to deal with the CRTC on other issues. And the CBC obviously has a cultural mandate to be concerned with.”
Read that again. Arrested and put in jail. For words. Our system of fines is arbitrary and political, but there are no jail threats, aside from those from random idiot Congressmen who want to change our rules. This doesn’t mean we should be complacent in fighting First Amendment infringements, but we have it pretty good, eh?
Post Script: For what it’s worth, I’ve used my Sirius car kit when driving into Canada. I could see Toronto in the distance and my receiver still had a clear signal from the satellites serving the United States. Hint, hint.
(Source: Get Sirius Info)
Unfortunately, I don’t think Canadians would be allowed to buy the equipment unless they had U.S. residence, yes? Otherwise I’d like to order some Canadian satellite TV, please. 😀
If we had truly libertarian economics, you’d have it. Based on our last exchange, I mostly agree on the Nader point we discussed about economics, so that’s more of a “you crazy Canadians” than anything. 😛