And now Congress is in the mix.  U.S. Sen John Kerry sent FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski a letter Wednesday urging him not to let millions of cable subscribers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut (none of them his own state) go without the Oscars: “I ask you to urge the parties to stay at the negotiating table and continue transmitting ABC programming to Cablevision consumers.  I simply do not believe consumers should lose access to a signal over their cable service as long as both parties are negotiating in good faith.” I asked Sen. Kerry’s office what constitutes good faith—and who decides it. No answer yet but he outlines what he thinks should be done before a broadcaster can remove a signal: “I don’t believe they should be able to do that unless the cable company is negotiating in bad faith, the broadcaster has submitted a claim of bad faith negotiation to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the FCC has determined that claim to be true.”

Not to be outdone, U.S. Rep. Joe Barton also wrote the FCC chair but he wants the government to stay out of it. It’s a private matter between broadcasters and distributors—and best left that way, he urges: “It is only when both sides face the risk that programming might be dropped that a true market negotiation can take place.”

A private matter being conducted very publicly (and with the potential to affect several million households). The difficulty unraveling many of the real details stems from just that. Either side can claim nearly whatever it wants and neither has to prove anything. Yet.