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Show Page The National Enterprise, May 11, 1977 twenty-si- x The Prince Column We do not concur Since 1968 a series of decisions by the Federal Communications Commission and the courts have significantly altered the way telecommunications services in this country are In the interest of promoting delivered. competition, the FCC recently proposed legislation regarding the use of telephone equipment by suppliers other than the telephone companies (switchboards, extensions, data terminals, etc.) and the establishment of intercity private line service by specialized common carriers. Approached by Mountain Bell to support defeat of such legislation, the National Enterprise herewith reprints, along with our own, the editorial decisions of other newspapers. ...The basic issue is not competition versus monopoly but rather whether the nation wants to continue to have telephone pricing policies that favor the home telephone user. . . the profitable ends of a business and ment regulation in the rest of it. . . govern- BY Chicago Tribune, 10-3-- 9-2-- 76 ...American phone users will pay a big price if the issue is resolved on the basis of lobby pressures. Although competition is a cornerstone of a free economy, there are a few instances in which it might not offer the and phone service greatest public benefit might be one of them. . . 76 4 Im bothered lately by the sheer predictability of the to We feel the FCC is too pressure-pron- e make the decision on further fragmenting of telephone service. If Congress, after thorough study, elects to go that route, at least it will be the peoples representative who will make that important consumer decision, not the appointed bureaucrats. Walter Mondale was asked the other day if he ever thought about being President. Believe it or not, he said, Ive never given it a moments thought. Well, I dont believe it. The Minneapolis Star, ...(A)s the powerful utility and the smaller competitors prepare for next years battle, there is one guideline both sides should consider: The winner ought to be the average American interests phone user. His or her long-terought to be Congress first consideration while deciding whether to approve the Consumer Communications Reform Act. m The Decatur Herald, well. In short, you (111.) 76 go on as they have been going, with a federal regulatory agency allowing competitors to skim off the profitable parts of the telephone business while state regulatory agencies and public interest groups generally refuse to allow rates to go up on other service. That is a or rather a sure road to a dead end road nationalized telephone system, supported by taxpayer subsidies and probably (as with the post office) by higher rates for everybody as cant have free competition in The net result is that we spend too much time watching too little substance on the evening news. Wouldnt it be nice to have some new answers to some old questions? For example: To tell you the truth Im obsessed with the idea. I Answer: would be plenty good used to believe that being enough, but now that I'm so close, I just cant get it out of my mind. Vice-preside- nt Then there were these original words from Secretary of the Treasury W. Michael Blummenthal when asked about the talks going on in London: second session of the seven-natio- n About all I can say to you is that it was a free and and frank discussion in which all of the various problems were aired and I think I can say that the heads of the various far-rangi- 10-13-- ...(l)ts equally clear that things cant People who should have things to say rarely do and other people who never do make much sense continue to be reported. Question: Mr. Vice President do you ever think about being President? 76 West Shore Times, Mechanicsburg, Pa., 76 news. Sweeping away government regulations of private industry, and returning to a pure free market, would not bring the utopia that some of its advocates envision. A case in point is the effort by the Federal Communications Commission to bring more competition into the telephone industry... 6-8-- Metropolitan Gazette, Compton, Calif., John Prince While we recognize that AT&T has given us probably the finest telephone system in the world, we respectfully decline to support its plea for reduced competition. Defenders of free enterprise, we can no more support monopoly than we can embrace autocracy. As for the argument that residential consumers will be forced to pay higher rates. . .why shouldnt they? We see no reason for business to continue the subsidy. The National Enterprise, 77 ng government feel satisfied that they made progress. Lets try it again: Question: Secretary Blumenthal, any statement regarding the talks? Frankly, the meeting was one big waste of time. There just isnt any way that these people are going to cooperate. The whole think makes me regret the Marshall Answer: Plan. Not saying anything is still probably better than those people who say very specific silly things. Who, for example, didnt feel just a bit uncomfortable when President Spencer Kimball of the LDS church blamed the drought on sin? Or when our new police chief in Salt Lake said that there was no such thing as a victimless crime because if there werent a victim it wouldnt be a crime (or something like that!). A lot of otherwise valuable news space is devoted to people who always say the same thing or to people who never say anything in the first place. For example, a great deal of our time could be saved were the news to report simply that Sam Taylor said today just what he has always said about free buses. Wouldnt it be nice to hear that the Rev. Harris of Ogden spoke today but nothing worth reporting was said? A specific suggestion for local viewers might be an offer to mail KSL editorial comments to all who are interested so as to spare the rest of us the agony. I dont know if you saw the study, but according to CBS, 64 percent of this country gets its news from TV. Think of that. At age 10, we are told, the average child spends more time watching TV than he spends in the classroom during the week. The real corker is that 82 percent of all parents surveyed believe that television has an overall good effect upon their children. In truth, what they get is mostly nothing. Bland meaningless statements with a minimum of depth. Studies have shown that the viewers attention span is not great enough to explore subjects with any depth. Just for the fun of it take a hard look at the news this evening. Will anyone say anything that in any way stimulates? In truth it will be bland and boring. Time for us to turn it off and read. |