And the construction crews erecting the Information Superhighway today stand idly by, while policy makers subject advanced telecommunications networks to the same regulatory hurdles they once imposed on cable. No one will be allowed to enter new markets, entrepreneurs are told, until it can be proven that no one will be hurt. The phantom risk of lost UHF has been replaced by horror stories about the "information have-nots."
We have seen the accuracy with which industrial planners pinpoint competitive fallout, and we should never forget the track record: Their aim stinks.
Yet the regulators were right about one very important matter. Popular access to diverse information sources is inherently democratic. As private, unregulated programmers have stormed the cable converter box, America's politics have been shaken and international despots have fallen. The tectonic plate shift wrought by cable deregulation of the 1970s showed that making information cheap by prying communications markets open was the one way government could in reality advance First Amendment values. This is a huge lesson for policy makers as we lurch toward the 21st century.
Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason at any time.
nfl jerseys|11.17.10 @ 2:03AM|#
cyjcx
سهمي|12.11.10 @ 4:25PM|#
dsgsdfsad