Pause: Flames, Nazis and You

The relaxing of industry and government control of TV might come to resemble the breakup of the Central Soviet's control of the Eastern European nations. At first all rejoiced in the wind of freedom; now all struggle as long-suppressed conflicts mount for battle. Freedom from tyranny grows into freedom to fight for nation, for religion, for principle. It grows simultaneously into the freedom to become our own worst selves.

How much freedom of expression should we allow on the airwaves and cables? How much do we videomakers want to exercise? We celebrate the opening of new TV channels and their increasing availability to videomakers. These promise a richer mix of programming than any we've seen. We can perhaps rebuild television as a public square in which various types of expertise can be voiced, in which various points of view can be expressed. This is the bright side, but like all technical innovations before it, open video access could throw a shadow.

Take the Internet. This is the computer network that connects thousands of independent computer networks around the world. Users ship all manner of information--data, scientific and cultural articles, opinion, images and sound--freely through this pipeline. No-one stands above the net as a gatekeeper; no-one decides that one idea is unworthy of transmission or that there is "not enough of an audience" for another. At the moment the Internet feels like First Amendment heaven; it has no censor. It's the ancient Athenian forum digitized: sweetness a…