Fighting Ennui

I would just like to point your attention to the following comment left on the SJ-R's story about our coverage today. Ordinarily I find the comments a bleak and desperate place where people hang out and find flaws in everything. This particular commenter really helps shed some light on why Public Access is important, even if it is far from perfect.

Fighting Ennui
2 hours ago

They finally kind of got the slingbox working, but without any audio, and poor resolution. That's too bad. But God bless them, this is exactly what we have Public Access television for: channel twenty and Fox55 really don't give a hoot about the parade. 20 used it as a backdrop for a regular newscast, 55 has covered it a few times in past years but stopped when it couldn't find advertisers to pay for it. These stations COULD use their FCC licenses to broadcast local events of public interest, but they choose only to do things that sponsors pay for. THIS is why Public Access is so great: it is about putting on things that are in the LOCAL PUBLIC INTEREST, REGARDLESS of commercial success/support, and regardless of fear of political opinions. It is the last place we have for speaking our minds to each other, unfiltered by commercial interests trying to sell you soap. It looks crude, it breaks down, it's sloppy... it's home-made television, for us, BY us. So warts and all, it is beautiful to ME. Bless you guys, it was a good try, hope the backup tape has sound so the replays later in the week can be heard. I'll set my VCR.

Thank you, Ennui. We did try. And I think we all buy into the concept of television for the people, by the people. I understand that Public Access can be used in strange and unappealing ways, but I think when this idea for a State Fair show came about, we were all really excited to get the chance to give something back to the community. We wanted to be a part of the community. To use a community resource to highlight a community tradition. To reflect what's important to Springfield: community and tradition.

So, it didn't work. We'll hope it went to tape and that people can understand. We really did try our best.