03-23-1992 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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\ / You DON'T I / TMiNKTHesUII NVINOlFWe—fwmm HDUSTW N UW0P. / Iiull imip\ vtv soMeoNe ^1 LIM60? HoWUM'%r « • * ■fyT w- ... .• 0 L.._. VI he hour is at hand for Ihe cable industry I to hang tight and present a unified front X io Washington. Gible lobbyists are now working overtime, ivhig the way for when Rep. Edward Markey again? Communication will be strained. Trust already is. Operators too have to be more conscious than ever about the signals they are sending. They must resist the urge to squeeze in just one Tales of Cable’s Boat People & How Loose lips Sink Ships -Mass.), chairman of the House lelecommuni- more double-digit rate hike before final iegisla- .............. . . ___? r_____itions sui^minittee, advances his cable bill in iUGh. untile it's very early in the game, one key ca- ie lobbyist told us last Thursday that cable is sltinf a better reception in the House than it did I the Senate. Hiet's all well and good. But at critical juncture like this, it’s portant to remember that im- jagoes a long way. and cable's 'io is. to say the least, looking a tia tarnished right now. li the end, the proponents of S t managed to create and sustain eimpcanion that the cable in- Mry continues to pillage and lender consumers’ purses while Ihe same time pretending to go ^ with rate re-regulation mea- ■es. That impression was construed, I patt, when the now infamous IBtao from Jim Mooney, president of the Na- Htal Cable Tblevision Association, written to idate his board on the industry ’s strategy, was to The WuMngton Post. Whoever leaked the memo — and odds are It mil started with someone on the NCTA’s di- ise and somedmet firactious 42-member board was either careless, stupid or downright •cherous. The memo got into the hands of radcatfers who more than effectively spun it lieir own gain. B^food the damage already sustained, odds »the memo will wreak even more havoc, but a more insidious sort. How can the NCTA ply craft in an atmosphere in which its leaders re to weigh the impact of every uttered or tion is enacted, as some cable lobbyists fear they will. And, finally, a column about cable’s image would be remiss if it failed to mention “the boat pie." Yes, it’s true; while broadcasters and sundry consumer and labor groups were out in full force lob bying in support of S 12, most of cole’s MSO executives were cruising in the Caribbean on the Seaborne Spirit, guests of Home Box Office. * Several industry observers, in cluding od)le executives, said it looked bad to have so many of the industry ’s key leaders on a parly boat while Rome was burn ing. However, several of the boat people maintain that they did their part on S 12 lobbying. They said they made plenty of ship-to- shore phone calls and had even considered char tering helicc^)tets to get them back to the Belt- way if needed. Maybe they should have hired those choppers. One MSO executive, who was not on the boat, shared an amazing tale with us. Early in the week of the S 12 debate, he met with three senators arui was astounded to hear that they bad never been approached by any ca ble lobbyists. In fact, they said they had “no inkling of cable’s side of the issue." The three senators eventually voted with cable and supported the substitute bill. “But if I hadn’t done it, we wouldn’t have had those three votes." End of tale.