Day: October 27, 2000

In Michigan, where I live, the group opposed to a voucher initiative that will be voted on November 7th is saturating local radio and television stations with ads denouncing the voucher proposal. According to the anti-voucher ads, vouchers will destroy education in Michigan, cause taxes to skyrocket, and any number of other horrible problems. The ads are very slick and, if the polls are any guide, very effective — support for the voucher plan is now stuck at around 30 percent.

One of the ads went too far for several Michigan TV stations who recently pulled the ad. The ad showed a little girl in a wheelchair with an accompanying voiceover that said, “Angelica will not benefit from Proposal 1’s exclusive private school vouchers because private schools are allowed to reject disabled students like Angelica.”

In fact, Michigan’s Persons With Disabilities Civil Rights Act — enacted in 1976 — makes it illegal for private schools to discriminate against people based solely on their disabilities.

This is pretty typical of the campaign the anti-voucher forces are running. It’s too bad that the Michigan Education Association and others haven’t put as much energy into teaching kids to read and not drop out as they have into defeating the voucher proposal.

Anti-voucher ad with disabled girl pulled. Laura Potts, The Detroit Free Press, October 26, 2000.

Writing for MP3Newswire, Richard Menta claims that Radiohead’s recent debut at #1 is due in large part to the album being available on Napster 3 months before it was scheduled to be released. According to Menta this sort of music never shows up on Billboard charts usually.

Sure, that’s why Nirvana had such success with their first major label release — because it was on Napster first (oops–no Napster? How did they ever sell CDs in the old days). In fact Radiohead’s debut is due to the immense publicist surrounding the album. I’ve never heard a Radiohead song or care about the group’s music, but even I’ve run across publicity for their latest album.

Besides the real argument against Napster is its long-term effects. Of course you have to out and by the CD now. Why? Because portable MP3 players are still too expensive and/or lack important features. Unless you’ve got a lot of money and/or patience, it’s not very easy to play MP3s outside of the computer environment.

MP3 devices are getting better, however, and it won’t be long before relatively cheap, easy to use portable devices arrive — possibly as soon as Christmas 2001. Once that happens, why buy CDs if the songs are available on Napster and can be taken anywhere with the same versatility as the compact disc?