The Daily Ping

What it lacks for in production value, Free Speech TV makes up for in programming. I first came across FSTV during a visit to California in 1999. I was impressed with the program I was watching, a reality program from 1994 that made the “Real World” look like the bunch of whiners that they are. In this program, FSTV followed kids with serious drug addictions and gang affilitions over a period of time, to see whether their lives changed. But it was a very non-interventional approach, providing a much more accurate glimpse of kids and how they handled problems people twice their age couldn’t handle.

Tonight I caught an even more fascinating program called Spin which “Examines the manipulation of media coverage for political ends.” It was amazing to watch Larry King brown nose each presidential candidate in 1992, trying to control them like he controls his audience. And during the 2000 election, they were the only channel to show extended coverage of Nader’s campaign.

While the channel has a decidedly liberal slant, there is still a wealth of great programming that you’ll never catch on any of the major networks. Unfortunately, it’s not available on very many cable systems, but if you have DISH, you can catch FSTV on channel 9415. -ram