Greed vs. Greed, Round 4

The curious, slippery-slope decision by the L.A. City Council last Friday to side with the NFL Network in its contentious contract dispute with the new, improved Time Warner Cable company, which affects about 2 million cable suckers, er, subscribers in the city and its surroundings, kind of tells everyone exactly where the city's decision-makers sit with wanting a team back in its backyard.

It'll do whatever it takes to make the NFL happy.

The Council turned away for a moment on less pressing issues of homelessness, polution, poverty and immigration to waste its breath with a 7-1 vote to approve asking the FCC to extend its order that the NFL Network stay on those Adelphia and Comcast cable systems recently swallowed up by Time Warner. It's an easy PR move to make the NFL and new commissioner Roger Goodell look as if it has the league's back in all situations -- even one where it has no business getting into. The lone abstaining vote was from Bill Rosendahl, a former Adelphia cable monger, who rightly says the two money-grubbing companies should fight it out without the city sticking its nose into it.

The bottom line remains: Time Warner wants the NFL Network on a tier of channels that'll cost the consumer extra. The NFL Network wants to be in the group with ESPN, TNT, etc., that don't cost the customer any more than they're already paying. The NFL Network has jacked up the subscriber rate for its channel from about a quarter a month to six bits after it decided to increase its value by adding eight regular-season games this season.

The viewer, of course, caught in the middle without a voice, does have an option that we'll continue to advocate until we're blue in the dish: DirecTV. Better service, better selection. We know some can't get it because of where they live in a condo or apartment that prohibits it or the signal doesn't work. Then move. Really. It's that simple. Don't get caught in this greed-vs.-greed scenario. You'll only lose.