Veni, Vidi, Video
The public is getting more and more confused about the First Amendment, and television stations seem to be adding to the confusion even more by implying that their use of the publicly owned airwaves is exactly akin to the right of the free-world, private-enterprise newspaper. According to a recent report by the Public Agenda Foundation, their survey revealed that the public feels that newspapers should be subject to the same sort of equal-access and fairness rulings which the FCC imposes on TV stations.
Obviously, the difference between a medium which is licensed to use public airwaves and a medium which does not depend upon using public property has been obscured by a great deal of confusing electronic discussion of First Amendment rights. NBC president Fred Silverman, when he was at ABC, even suggested that advertising agencies should have First Amendment protection in order to get their commercial message across to the public . . . .
According to retail outlets, which report their experiences to the trade magazines, certain laser videodiscs have a very high defect rate, and record shops have been forced to accept as high as 50 percent return on imperfect discs. So don't blame the problem on yourself if you are having trouble with your new discplayer. Take the disc back to the shop which sold it to you and have it inspected . . . .
The electronic revolution is making its greatest inroads these days in offices where computers are replacing just about everything but the water fountain. Sony has just announced a noiseless portable typewriter whcih replaces paper. A compact word processor, mini-cassette, a small disk for memory storage, and a small computer do the trick. Sonly calls it a Typecorder and it does everything but transcribe dictation. Well, maybe tomorrow . . . .
A survey of video games by Panorama magazine deemed Atari's Video Computer System the most fun to play of all the TV- hookup models available. In case you plan to dash out to buy it, the game retails for $200 -- just about the cost of a season ticket for yout local big-city baseball team . . . .
No, it is not just a bad pun. RCA's new VideoDisc catalog will feature a videoD isc version of "Holocaust." . . .
