MVTV needs to be preserved

3

To the Editor:
Should Comcast be allowed to defund MVTV? The answer is a resounding no. Not now, not ever. Why? Because Comcast has a virtual monopoly on Martha’s Vineyard. Yes, one might go DirectTV. We might want to pretend that there is competition on Martha’s Vineyard, but we all are acquainted with TV reality on the Island. We can see, discern, and recognize that within their practical, fundamental, and effective structure is a simulated concern for its customers, which we can place in the category of make-believe.

If it weren’t for MVTV, I would not have been able to learn the intricacies of how our community television station works. I have been able to benefit from what MVTV has to offer. I learned how to use iMovie on my Mac from classes offered by MVTV that allowed me to produce a movie.

None of what I learned would have been possible without the dedication of all members of the MVTV staff.

MVTV, a nonprofit, provides a service that can be accessed by any member of the Martha’s Vineyard community.

If Comcast truly believes in freedom of the press, they must continue funding MVTV. If they don’t do that, the truth of their business is structurally oriented to profit and profit only. With a virtual monopoly on Martha’s Vineyard, the only thing that defunding MVTV will do is add to their profit margin.

Peter Cabana
Vineyard Haven

3 COMMENTS

  1. Comcast is in fact a (sort of) regulated monopoly but by no means the only game in town. I live on Chappaquiddick where the “wisdom” is that only Comcast and Direct TV can get you TV, but I’m here to say I get Boston and Providence channels, 2, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 25, and 64 (and sometimes others) with an old fashioned aluminum antenna on the roof. Tell Comcast and Direct TV to go jump in the lake.

  2. Aren’t all business’s “oriented to profit”? We should be happy we have been able to extort funding for MVTV all these years from a private company. The Steamship is a monopoly for vehicle transport and what have they done for us lately?

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