Cheers and jeers from around the news:

• Jeers to disputes between well-heeled sports networks and conglomerate cable companies, because the public loses. The Boston Celtics are being held hostage from many households in Maine because of just such a case.

Comcast Sports Net, which owns the Celtics rights, wants a big premium increase from Time Warner, which balked. This impasse could cost Time Warner customers coverage of the popular team, which has finally returned to power after years in the basketball doldrums.

There is a symbiotic relationship between programming and providers which is damaged by these disputes, because they only affect what both need: customers. Instead of posturing, each side should work toward swift resolution, lest there be fewer customers to worry about.

• In this vein, jeers to FairPoint Communications for failing, so far, to deliver on its broad promises of service after purchasing Verizon’s landlines in Maine. We’re not ready to write the company off, but state officials are justified in pressuring FairPoint to improve.

We never expected this transition would be simple. But we didn’t imagine it would be this problematic; apparently, neither did FairPoint. Maine is better off with a telecommunications company that wants to be here than with one that didn’t, but points for effort only go so far. Performance is paramount.

• Cheers to LD 775, which would bond $27 million for the “Communities for Maine’s Future” fund to prompt investment into downtowns and community centers. Maine should put buying power behind popular sentiments and movements for brick-and-mortar improvements in cities and towns.

What’s best is that this is a revolving fund, not a one-shot deal. This would not only put some consistency in policy, by giving the state the means to fund projects, but a consistency of funds so communities can find the money to do them.

If Maine is to bond, it should bond smart. This amount of $27 million seems like good value for the returns it could provide across the state.

• Finally, cheers to checking “Yes” on line 1 of the Maine income tax form to fund clean elections. The state has borrowed heavily from the clean elections fund for other reasons over the years, leaving the program with a $4.4 million deficit. There’s talk of getting some of it back, but not in full. (That’s how the state works, you know.)

If the budget-counters in Augusta can’t fund the program, the public should. Citizens created clean elections, after all; checking yes on the tax form is simply re-stating this case.