Lisa Pampuch’s recent My Point Exactly column argues that
”
Community Media Access Partnership is the obvious better
choice
”
to provide public access television to Morgan Hill residents. I
must disagree with her.
By Martin Cheek
Lisa Pampuch’s recent My Point Exactly column argues that “Community Media Access Partnership is the obvious better choice” to provide public access television to Morgan Hill residents. She advocates that the Morgan Hill City Council follow city staff’s recommendation to outsource management of the Morgan Hill Access Television station to CMAP staff based in Gilroy.
I must disagree with her. I fear it will not be in our community’s best interest if the Morgan Hill City Council awards the broadcast license to CMAP and Morgan Hill citizens lose local control of our public access TV station.
I joined the Media Access Coalition of Central California board in September. I took on this volunteer position because I believe a locally-controlled public access television station such as MHAT Channel 19 benefits our citizens with an important media resource. Public access TV enhances democracy. It upholds our American First Amendment tradition by letting ordinary people use an electronic broadcast medium to share their views and express their opinions.
Almost every week, MHAT volunteers use the studio’s equipment to record events for broadcast on our community’s Channel 19 television station. Nonprofit groups that have benefitted from video content creation and broadcast include the Friends of the Morgan Hill Library, the Sister Cities program, the Morgan Hill Toastmasters club, the San Pedro Ponds Trail Volunteers, the Poppy Jasper Film Festival, the Morgan Hill Historical Society, Leadership Morgan Hill, the Mushroom Mardi Gras, the Taste of Morgan Hill, and the Downtown Morgan Hill Association.
MHAT volunteers have a positive working relationship with CMAP’s employees and volunteers. Volunteers from both organizations join together in producing shows at the TV studio that Gavilan Community College operates at its Gilroy campus. No doubt, as Ms. Pampuch points out, CMAP is bigger than MHAT. CMAP is lucky to enjoy a large budget because Gilroy, Hollister and San Juan Bautista cable subscribers are charged $3 each month in cable TV fees. In comparison, Morgan Hill cable subscribers pay 60 cents a month to support MHAT. CMAP also has a much bigger state-of-the-art facility provided free of charge by Gavilan Community College.
Unfortunately, bigger is not always better. With less financial resources, a much smaller studio, and fewer hardware equipment resources, MHAT volunteers manage to create as much community-oriented content as CMAP volunteers. That content also compares in quality. And, unlike CMAP, they do it without a paid staff.
On Feb. 26, I spoke for two minutes on the phone with Ms. Pampuch to address a question she had for her column. She wanted to know exactly how many members MHAT could list. She told me she was “simply trying to compare apples with apples.” I tried to explain to her why it’s a mistake to simplify the issue by quantifying the volunteers listed at each organization. A more equitable comparison in her column would consider content creation.
MHAT and CMAP have vastly different membership policies. CMAP has a multi-tiered membership policy that varies in rates to join. On the other hand, as I tried to explain to Ms. Pampuch, MHAT has an open-door policy. MHAT lets non-members use its resources free of charge – so long as they provide that content for broadcast on Channel 19.
When my fellow MACCC board member Bob Snow tried to explain to Ms. Pampuch that it’s misleading to make a strictly by-the-numbers comparison of members, she wasn’t interested in hearing his viewpoint. She simply wanted a total number of MHAT members. Their phone conversation lasted less than a minute when Ms. Pampuch decided to end the call.
It would have been nice if Ms. Pampuch might have given MHAT volunteers the courtesy of considering their points before publishing her column. She failed to listen to – or even hear – the counter-argument. She failed to see beyond the promises put on paper. She failed to see how MHAT volunteers work hard to provide the people of our community with something money can’t buy. They are Morgan Hill residents who give value to their friends and neighbors and fellow citizens. Their spirit of dedication preserves our American democratic tradition for freely expressing all views and opinions – including views and opinions that might run counter to our own.
Martin Cheek lives in Morgan Hill and volunteers for MHAT.
