Choice in cable channels? Debate heats up

[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Randy Dotinga]
With everyone from consumer groups and minority organizations watching closely, Congress is poised to decide whether to enter a roiling debate over cable and satellite bills. At issue is whether paying for TV channels should be like shopping at the supermarket, where customers choose the products they purchase, or like buying a newspaper, which comes packaged with the same sports, business, and comics sections regardless of whether readers want them all. It's hardly a minor debate in a country where more than 90 million households subscribe to cable and satellite TV, with many forced to pay for dozens of channels regardless of how many they watch. Minority and religious cable networks are working to stop a la carte pricing. In a newspaper column, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, whose ministries run a cable/satellite channel, wrote that it "threatens to purge Christian broadcasts from the vast majority of US households.... In our zeal to protect our children from 'Sex and the City,' we should not adopt policies that would prevent millions from hearing the gospel."
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0110/p03s03-ussc.html