In this essay,the writerrecognizes the reason for the claim given in the prompt but refutes it withspecific examples，even coming up with a perhaps more appropriate analogy．The essay contains no significant errors in grammar or mechanics．
　　The suggestion has been made thattelevision is a democratic medium because its content is controlled by the willof the people．Althoughthis is a supposition that probably makes television executives sleep well atnight，it is flawed．I believetelevision is less a democracy than it is a federal republic．
　　Power in the world of televisionis centralized，with subdivisions of that power granted to franchises，or affiliates．The central powers that bedictate the programming to the affiliates，and onlyrecently have certain affiliates gained the power to fight back or to inserttheir own programming when they disagree with the networks’ plan．
　　The notion that television isdemocratic is based on the fact that programming is determined by Nielsenratings，inwhich people are polled on their likes and dislikes．However，since Nielsen ratings do not entail the vote of every singlehousehold，or even every single household with atelevision， how are they democratic ?we do not vote forsomeone to represent our tastes in a Nielsen rating．Theraters are themselves chosen，perhaps at random butperhaps not，by the company doing the polling．It is also obvious to anyone that certain eiements of thetelevision—watching population have a greater pull than others．Since television depends on advertising sales，people who consume certain products have more of a vote inprogramming than people who do not．
　　So the centralized powers in thetelevision world use a biased rating system to determine programming for theaffiliates．whothen pass this on to the masses．An affiliate gets acertain amount of airtime in which to place local advertising that presumablyappeals more directly to its viewers，but most of theadvertising is national，supporting my contention thattelevision is a federal republic．Ascitizens，our only real．power is the power to turn theTV off．