Candace Clement of Free Press weighs in on the discrimination against local community programming on cable video systems with this good post regarding the petitioning of the FCC to redress this situation.

Most people flip their way through the television dial, pause when something piques their interest, and move on when boredom hits. As media consumers, we click, click, click until we find a program that grabs us. The beauty of television is that we have so many options, including local programming. Or so it seems.

But according to more than 300 organizations, city officials and other individuals who filed comments yesterday with the Federal Communications Commission, companies like Comcast and AT&T have been illegally discriminating against local programming on community television channels.

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That’s a terrible shame because PEG channels are a vital platform for local media in our communities. They are some of the only avenues available to everyday folks who want to try their hand at producing video programming. Many PEG stations are robust community operations that provide media training and youth programs, foster civic journalism, or support the production of documentaries and other videos – some of which have gone on to win Emmy Awards .

But companies like Comcast and AT&T have moved PEG channels off the basic tier, making them difficult to access. These companies also severely limit the many features offered by commercial channels, such as closed captioning and digital video recording (like TiVO).

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