Re: Bob Bittner's Unlikely Ally In The Fight Against The "Cash Machine"

["Douglas J. Broda" <djbroda@mindspring.com>]

At 03:27 PM 1/20/00 -0500, PublicRef2 wrote:
>Bob Bittner, sworn enemy of the CashMachine(R) has gotten an unlikely
>ally in the war against the machine that can squeeze out up to six more
>minutes of commercials per hour.
>
>This unlikely ally is Dr. Laura. This past Sunday (January 16th), ABC's
>"World News Tonight Sunday" had a feature report, narrated by ABC
>newswoman Judy Muller, about the machine. Dr. Luara was interviewed
>about it, and she was irate! She was upset that he machine made her
>voice sound "speeded-up".

Much as I am no fan of Dr. Laura, I'm with her on this one. However, she
has an option. She and her syndicator could easily, in all new and renewal
contracts regarding syndication, condition the contract on not using such a
device. Whether they will (in light of the fact that some broadcasters
might not like it), who knows?

As for the "dead air" cuts, that troubles me less. We already have cuts for
ads on syndicated shows, and I'd rather see "smart" cuts than "brain-dead"
cuts as we Trekkers have seen for over 25 years on Classic Trek reruns.
Speeding up TV shows and movies, though, I'm opposed to from an aesthetic
perspective, even if it is less obvious as it's been demonstrated for TV
than it is for radio.

BTW, there's an ATM network somewhere called "CashMachine"... maybe they'll
seek protection for their good name? :)

------------------------------------------------------------------
Douglas J. Broda
Broda and Burnett
Attorneys at Law
80 Ferry Street, Troy, NY 12180 USA
(518) 272-0580
djbroda@mindspring.com