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"WE ARE A VOICE FOR ACTIVISTS WORKING INDEPENDENTLY OF large media companies, to some degree in opposition to them," explains Free Speech TV founder John Schwartz. "We champion work that presents an explicit point of view, which means we do have a distinctly different vision than most television channels."
This distinctly different vision encompasses not just program content, but program distribution. After all, an engaged audience is the primary element of media democracy, and how much good can challenging programs accomplish if no-one can see them?
Free Speech TV traces its origins to the 1989 launch of The Nineties Channel, itself a visionary form of bringing television to the public. Realizing that few outlets would be eager to program political, often controversial work, Schwartz was able to create a home for activist media through leased access cable, which he used to offer the Nineties Channel full time in several markets. However, after media giant TCI bought out the original cable operator, they made it clear they weren't comfortable with the program content-and when the lease came up for renewal, they priced the Nineties Channel off the air by raising rates to an impossible level.
Schwartz and his colleagues shifted their attention to developing the nascent Free Speech TV. At the outset, FSTV licensed and packaged four hours of programming each week, distributing the package to 50 community and educational access channels. This allowed smaller community channels to program high quality, topical work, and to benefit from common promotional and outreach materials developed by...