NBC Believes They Own Political Discourse

PoliSciASU writes "MSNBC has established draconian rules regarding the use of the Presidential Primary Debates on the internet. Some examples: '5. No excerpts may be aired after 8:30 pm on Saturday, May 26th. Excerpts may not be archived. Any further use of excerpts is by express permission of MSNBC only. 6. All debate excerpts must be taped directly from MSNBC's cablecast or obtained directly from MSNBC and may not be obtained from other sources, such as satellite or other forms of transmission. No portions of the live event not aired by MSNBC may be used.' Kevin Bondelli talks about why this is 'shameful and wrong'. Voters are missing out on the ability to actually have an engaged conversation about the candidates and their debate performances because of NBC's greed." Alexander Wolfe at InformationWeek and Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine share similar sentiments, and discuss the matter in different ways.

Comments

first post?

[N3wsByt3]

No first posts may be posted after 8:30 pm on Saturday, April 28th. Excerpts may not be archived. Any further use of excerpts is by express permission of Slashdotmember n3wsbyt3 only.

Re:Fair Use

[HaeMaker]

Remember kids, Preview!

Grrr. Fair Use!

What is this crap in American Idol's timeslot?

[KiraFace]

Who cares? Politics is for the Elderly, white middle-aged middle-class, and twelve other people. And then half of them vote. Although, perhaps we shouldn't blame the media...

Dubya is NBC's President?

[FredThompson]

Who is this "dubya" you say is president of NBC?

Is he related to FUD-ya?

Re:These debates are a waste of space now anyway

[louisadkins]

Even better was listening to it on the radio. With no visual tricks, you could hear Bush's IQ rating drop every time he opened his mouth, and Gore came across much less flat. I plan on listening to any future debates. Last time, we played a Looney Tunes tape, no sound, in the background. Amusing was the episode (Duck Dodgers) where every time Bush spoke there was a silent, ranting, Daffy...

Re:These debates are a waste of space now anyway

[jZnat]

Hey, I'm both intelligent and religious you insensitive clod!

But I agree; the level of anti-intellectualism in the US is astounding. To think that we're somehow a first-world country despite that is quite amazing in its own regard.