John A. Barnes, in The Wash- ington Monthly (June 1989), 161 1 Connecticut Ave. N.W., Wash- Of Cable TV ington, D.C. 20077-3865.
If you have cable television in your home, chances are that your local government has granted a franchise monopoly to a ca- ble company. Chances are also good that it made a big mistake, argues Barnes, an edi- tor at the Detroit News.
Since cable television's growth began during the 1970s, some 5,000 U.S. munici- palities have granted franchises. Cable, like telephone...