As managing editor of the Half Moon Bay Review, I guess I'm the competition Barry mentions in the previous comment.

Barry's right. I passed on his offer for an opinion piece. Because I think it's more about promoting his business than public access. Here is the complete text of my e-mail to him. You decide if he was fair:

Hey Barry,

Sorry for the delay. Deadline day ate my e-mailing time.

I’m gonna say no. And here is why: I’m happy to have your opinions on general Coastside stuff, but I’m not interested in promoting your commercial web site in our paper. And that is essentially how I see your battle with MCTV. Why don’t you post it to Talkabout? While I don’t know exactly what you would write till I see it, I would most likely allow that (Talkabout is the newspaper's message board).

Personally, I think it behooves MCTV to either stream the thing on a web site of their own or give it to you. Not that I think they are legally or morally bound to do so, rather I just think it would be the correct business decision for them. I think you are off-base with the “fair use” argument, the franchise fees and all the rest. Anyway, my opinion ... I got a million of them.

clay