Go to previous post:
Check it out

Go to Electrolite's front page.

Go to next post:
The Barb

Our Admirable Sponsors

April 30, 2002

False witness Jamie Kellner is chairman and CEO of the Turner Broadcasting System. Here are his views on devices like TiVo, that allow viewers to skip past television commercials:
It’s theft. Your contract with the network when you get the show is you’re going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn’t get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial or watch the button you’re actually stealing the programming.
This is the voice of someone who has lost track of the distinction between morality and his business model. If it inconveniences the way he does business, it’s “theft.”

This is the voice of Big Content: shameless, resourceful, everlastingly mendacious. Small-time prose writers who rush to ally themselves with these Lords of the Flies will find themselves next on the menu. Just because you’re on their side doesn’t mean…okay, you’ve heard it.

UPDATE: Avram Grumer remarks on this, commenting as he does that I neglected to provide a link to the Kellner interview. Oops. I seem to be going through some kind of Screwup Zone when it comes to URLs lately, as my correspondents have kindly pointed out. [12:09 AM]

Welcome to Electrolite's comments section.
Hard-Hitting Moderator: Teresa Nielsen Hayden.

Comments on False witness: