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September 02, 2009 News + Opinion » City

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Call-in Show Tonight on BT's On-Again Off-Again Relationship with Al Jazeera 

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Seven Days reported last week that municipally owned cable TV provider Burlington Telecom is dumping Al Jazeera's English language channel from its broadcast line-up.

We got one letter supporting BT's decision to drop the Arab news network, and several protesting it.

Tonight, the controversy is the subject of a live call-in show at 5:25 on Channel 17 (BT channel 317). You can show up at the studio at 5 to be part of the discussion.

Blogger and VCAM producer Bill Simmon wrote about BT's announcement on Monday, then posted about it again today. He poses the following questions:

  • If you pulled Al Jazeera because ofsubscriber complaints, and that many subscribers (or more) have askedfor it to remain, what is your justification for pulling it, exactly?
  • Willyou pull other channels out of the line-up because of similarcomplaints?  Would you pull Fox News if you received enough emails?  Ifnot, what's different about that situation?
  • Don'tcustomers have the ability to block unwanted channels themselves (asrequired by law)?  Why pull an entire channel so nobody in thecommunity can see it?  Why not just instruct customers who don't wantthe content in how to block it?

Tune in tonight. Looks like you might even be able to catch the program on CCTV's fancy pants new website.

UPDATE: Burlington Telecom's Ricard Donnelly responds to Bill's questions in the comments thread on that post.

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About The Author

Cathy Resmer

Cathy Resmer
goodcitizenvt.com
Bio:
 Deputy publisher Cathy Resmer is an organizer of the Vermont Tech Jam, and compiles a weekly tech e-newsletter every Monday. She also oversees HR, helps manage Seven Days' digital staff and oversees its parenting publication, Kids VT. In 2018, she designed and administered a statewide youth civics project, the... more

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