it's par for the course. whenever i pick one letter from the register, there's undoubtedly going to be another that deserves the same attention.

Set my television free, Congress

Way back in the history of broadcasting, Congress guaranteed local TV broadcasters that if they had agreements to carry network programming, no other broadcaster in its reception area could carry that same programming. This World War II-era government-controlled monopoly model persists to this day, and is why fans of "American Idol" are stuck with a basketball game (" 'American Idol' loses to Hawkeye Games," Feb. 9).

Ironically, the technology to overcome this is cheap and seamless: Since TV stations upload their signals via satellites, cable or satellite providers could retransmit those signals to their subscribers, so they could watch "Idol" on, say, Chicago's Fox affiliate, WFLD, instead of the basketball game on Des Moines' Fox affiliate, KDSM.

But providers aren't allowed to do that, thanks to the deceptively named Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act (SHVIA). Passed in 1999, the law, which ossifies the restrictions imposed by ancient technology, holds viewers hostage to the whims of local broadcasters and their advertisers.

There are no similar federal regulations restricting other forms of consumer choice: If you don't like a car dealership in Des Moines, you are free to shop for that car in the Quad Cities, or in Minnesota, for that matter. Don't like your bank? Open an account with another. But if your local TV station chooses to pre-empt network programming - such as when WOI's owner, Capital Communications, refused to air the "Nightline" segment involving the reading of the Iraq war dead - the viewer has no recourse.

You could argue that "it's only television." But when TV is such a huge part of our culture, and when it is the overwhelming provider of our news and information, should this massest of media really remain a state-controlled franchise? It is past time for Congress to tear down the walls of broadcaster protectionism and allow viewers to make their own choices.

-Ira Lacher,
Des Moines.

http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050213/OPINION04/502130321/1035/OPINION