The Best of Several Bad Options Is Still a Bad Option

[SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review, AUTHOR: Paul McLeary]
[Commentary] "Family-friendly" cable tiers have the potential to do plenty of harm to small, experimental channels and programs, and to media diversity in general. Consider the fate of smaller channels, like Current TV, which is doing something genuinely new by running viewer-generated news items and documentaries. Would Current have a fighting chance under this new program? The way the system works now, large cable companies in effect subsidize smaller channels when they bundle them into their cable packages, but with this new, pure choice model, the chance of a viewer accidentally discovering interesting, new programming is cut down substantially.What's more, there's the danger of a trickle-down effect. The family plan could very well pressure cable channels into censoring some of their shows in order to make them more palatable to the family bundles -- thus reducing the already slim pickings offered for mature, thoughtful adults on cable television. And what does "family-friendly" mean, exactly, and who decides what shows are included under this broad heading?
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