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Greek Government Abruptly Shuts Down State Broadcaster
An anonymous reader writes "The Greek government shut down broadcasting of all TV and radio channels operated by the state-owned broadcaster ERT at midnight local time, with police ejecting journalists and other employees occupying the building. The above link is a prominent Greek economics professor's (and Valve's in-house economist) analysis of the political motivations for the move."
That's kind of weird. We hear about governments shutting down all broadcast media other than state-owned media so often that the opposite is just...bizarre...
What's the rest of Greece's commercial broadcast media like? What was this organization like? The only analogues I have are NPR and PBS for "state owned" and that's not necessarily entirely accurate, and that private broadcast media here in the US is often very, very heavily biased, even moreso when they make claims to the contrary.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Maybe those evil tax evaders could afford to pay some taxes if those poor, abhorred multi-billionaires would pay a decent wage to the people who do all the work for their companies instead of siphoning it all off into offshore accounts.
What kind of regulation would solve this? Companies are allowed to sell their products for whatever they want in every EU country.
And here we have a perfect example of (one of the reasons) why Greece has the problems it has.
People so convinced that the are owed more of everything as to think that goods being sold by
private companies can be price fixed by the government so they can afford them.
Hint: if people are not buying them, the companies will lower the price if they want to sell them, its
called supply and demand.. if people want the products, the price will rise.
Surely you are not going to try and convince us IKEA somehow has a monopoly on furniture that it is
somehow using to force people to pay high prices?
The 'problem' with free markets is people reap what they (and their governments) sow, and greece
has done a lot of sowing over the last few decades (as have many other countries).
Hint: if you want a higher quality of living, you have to be either smarter, or harder working, or willing
to sacrifice more natural resources than others - not always pleasant, just a FACT.
Shut the fuck up idiot. Multi-billionaires don't pay taxes dumb ass. Middle class working folk pay almost all the tax. You are probably paying more percentage wise than just about everyone else.
But you keep pushing that liberal agenda. Because it is the "right thing to do". "It is for the good of the country". Or whatever lies you tell yourself.
We have those same 4 channels in Greece too. It's just that we lost the one that didn't show them.
I didn't bring the argument of capitalism into this. The blog post linked in TFA did. Further, the public channels are described as nothing more than a mouth-piece for propaganda - blacklisting voices of dissent - how does this even come close to the picture you paint of "more objective"/"more integrity"? Lastly, no. The Greek crisis was not an issue of rampant capitalism.
Only on
And here we have a perfect example of (one of the reasons) why Greece has the problems it has. People so convinced that the are owed more of everything as to think that goods being sold by private companies can be price fixed by the government so they can afford them.
The point of regulation is to prevent companies from market manipulation. Companies will naturally move to maximize profits and will, if allowed, perform any action to do so. Competition gets eaten up while at the same time no room is left for new players. Eventually, the market dies.
So regulation is required to facilitate a healthy market. Rules are put in place to ensure that established companies can not prevent competition from entering a market. Limits to what monopolies can do are instigated. Everybody is forced to play fair in an attempt to maximize competition and the benefits of capitalism.
People go on and on about how capitalism and regulation are polar opposites. This is ludicrous. Without regulation the benefits of capitalism do not exist. The invisible hand is an idealized concept which, much like communism, ignores reality and is doomed to failure. A market without sufficient regulation will not optimizes overall efficiency. Of course too much regulation also reduces efficiency - but a certain amount is always required.
So this isn't about the Greek people wanting the government to fix prices - this would obviously not work. It's about opening up the markets that have been sewn shut by the current players. This required effective regulation - far easier said then done.
You must live in the USA
No I don't. Around here (Denmark), a liberal is just a slightly less extreme version of a conservative, and both would be placed securely on the right side of the scale. I don't follow US politics very closely, but to me it seems the democrats and the republicans are pretty much the same thing - corporate apologists.
... whatever
Since when do "state run" and "quality" belong together?
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
meanwhile, in USA, I have 4 channels that are showing the Kardashians at this very moment.
Panem et circenses...
Since when do "state run" and "quality" belong together?
BBC.
In the UK, switching from BBC1 (main state-funded TV channel) to ITV1 (main commercial broadcaster) is like going from a Michelin-starred restaurant to McDonald's.
State-funded is different from state-run. Allegedly this Greek broadcaster is the former, but I don't know how far it swung in which direction.
Actually, I'd say unless you have a government bent on controlling the news, state media usually provides the most neutral less "hyped" information. I know in the US it's all about "nothing should be state owned" but beyond the rethoric in many instances state media have provided the best quality TV, certainly in terms of information. Too much of private TV news is entertainment. The CNNisation of news is a terrible tragedy.
I cannot say what the situation was in Greece, but if it is similar to what I have experienced when I have been in Western Europe, greeks have probably lost their best source of news.
I like my dinosaurs feathery, and my pterosaurs hairy (or is it pycnofibery?)
Yep, many surveys have shown that NPR/PBS consumers tend to be more well informed when compared against extremely politicized sources like FOX and MSNBC and also when compared against consumers of mainstream mass market news sources. Right wing extremists have been complaining about liberal bias at NPR/PBS for years but it seems to be the same kind of liberal bias as reality has =)
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
You are the the state, jackass.
As a New Yorker I wish I could pay the license fee to get bbc broadcast access.