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I have to follow the threads,

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but one of the things that has started to come out has been this supposedly fundamental divide between “consumers” and “customers”. The idea – I think it’s from Cluetrain, but I’ll check later – is that being a customer is far superior than being a consumer and that the distinction is fundamental. Maybe, but remember that a “citizen” has a far richer bundle of rights and responsibilities than either. If people are really trying to suggest that we fight for rights as customers, I’d suggest that the battle has already been lost – the real fight should be for rights as citizens. Being a customer implies that your rights flow from a transaction. Weak weak weak. Being a citizen implies that your rights flow from having been born (or naturalized). That’s where the stakes are really high, not in the world of consumerism OR customerism.

Doc Searls covers radio very well,

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and today he points to a San Antonio Current article about Clear Channel that demonstrates a point I’ve been making for years. The CDA was NOT the worst part of the Telecom Reform Act. It was a smoke screen to divert attention from the negative effects of the concentration of media ownership, which is much more efficient by any measure than overt censorship at ensuring that diverse views go unheard, unpublished.

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