TVSquad

Not that big of a stretch since the majority of tv in the UK is public funded.

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Yeah here in germany too. I have to pay 18 Euro a month (currently abot 25US$) to "enjoy" a variety of programs I don't use. We get two primary TV "stations" which in fact are shown all over germany with th same program for 80 million people. A third station is "local" for the "Bundesländer", which I guess you would call states in the US, with the smallest being larger cities like Hamburg with about 5 million citizens to the largest like the one I live in citizen-wise (Northrhine Westphalia with about 40 million) or Bavaria (area wise the biggest one). Those programs have even smaller local 15 minute newscast for the local city (like my home-city of 350k has it's own local "window" with local news). In addition to that we have a whole newschannel like CSPAN also funded by our money as well as about 15 digital channels where old as well as new programs are re-run: a documentation channel like Discovery, one with only theater, one with the latest news programs that show investigative reporting. We lack a sports channel. Those last 15 are broadcasted digitally and with the switch to digital broadcasting currently in progress, anybody in germany with a digital antenna can nowadays get at least 15 programs. If you don't have a steady income and basically live off the government (if you are out of work or not working at all you get money from the state) you get it all of thisfor free (sidenote: you also get your medical bills paid by the state). In addition there are also about 80 radio stations. If you do have a steady income and you don't have a TV you at the moment don't have to pay your "taxes" for TV, if you only have a radio (for instance if you own a car) you have to pay about 8 Euro a month for being able to receive the radio channels. There is one channel that is broadcasted all over the world. One TV channel is also on many calbe and satellite networks around the world.

When it comes to politics I think the money we have to pay for TV is justified (Political ads also have to be shows on the major privately owned tv networks for free - it's part of their licensing agreement with the government). Parties get their airtime for free, those clips are usually shows with a grey box around them. This way everybody can get their message across with a fair share of airtime and not based on how much money they collected to buy airtime.

What we do now have here in germany is public debates on TV. It started about 8 years ago and I think it's also a good idea like John Cleese explained. That way you don't just get soundbites.

Also I think the way elections are run in the US, being totally money-driven, is bad for the political process. Don't get me started on the way you actually elect your president ;-) (with only 50% of people voting and with criminals not being able to vote at all as well as that idiotic zoning of city areas to be able to win those by certain political figures as well that guy who's running California right now but I digress). I think the system is deeply flawed. It's been stated time and again on The Daily Show that nowadays politicians who ought to stay in washington for the whole week to be able to actually take part in politics have to get back to their home state 4 in 7 days of the week to collect more money so they can get re-elected the next time their term is up. I cannot possibly understand this. You are basically owned by the people who have the most money this way. Look at who got elected the last fourty years. It's a Bush/Kennedy/Clinton dynasty. Also, you only have two major political parties. I don't see the green party taking any part in the political process of on-air debates at all. Here in germany they have an 8% share in the elections and they too have a presidential candidate who is allowed to speak. If you look at the numbers of those candidates in the US who dropped out in the recent months (or better all those who drop out just in the last couple of days) it makes you wonder how somebody like Rudy Guiliani who in the end had a share of 2% of those 50% amercians who vote for the GOP of which only 50% actually go to the voting booths on election day- that's half of 50% (which is 25%) and 2% of that (which is 0.25 * 0.02 and that's 0.005 which is HALF a percent of the american public). I think the political process is a highly monolithic organized structure with no diversity. It's all a discussion about shades of grey if you ask me.

I admit that here in germany we also only had the two major parties gain the presidency in the end in the time since the war but they often enough had to team up with smaller parties and at the moment they both run a grand coalition- they both got about 30% of the votes last time and to have majority of votes in our version of congress they have to work to together.

Phew. Lengthy post. :-) Hope somebody likes it :-)

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