The One-Eyed “God”

Have you heard about this? On Feb. 17, 2009 all TV broadcasts will switch from an analogue signal to a digital signal. No shocker there. After all, everything is moving toward a digital signal; it was only a matter of time before TV broadcasts made the complete switch. So what makes this worthy of a blog post? I’m glad you asked.

In yesterday’s Sunday Oregonian I read an article titled “Digital TV: Plot thickens Feb. 17, 2009” by Charles Pope. If you don’t have time to read the full article, allow me to summarize. The Feb 17 switchover is not a date set by the broadcast executives, but rather a date set by the government. Congress is now holding a series of meetings to ensure that the transition goes well, because if it doesn’t the American people will be pointing their fingers at the government and asking why all of their TVs have gone black. In addition the article states that “The federal government will spend $1.5 billion to provide $40 coupons to viewers who need to buy converters so their old analog TVs will work.” The remainder of the article goes on to describe the fact that despite efforts both in the private and public sectors, no comprehensive plan is yet in place.

Allow me to enumerate all of the things that anger me about this article.

1. The government should not be the one to dictate the transition to digital television. Is this what they’ve been paid to do? Is this the top priority of the US Government? Surely they can allow the private execs the latitude of making these decisions for themselves? I’m sure we did not need our government to intervene and set a mandatory switchover date.
   
2. Now that the government has overstepped their bounds, they have brought upon themselves a huge problem that they should never have had in the first place: What if it all goes wrong? Congress is actually holding a series of special meetings to discuss the “crisis” of 45 million people not being able to watch an episode of Jude Judy. If they’d have kept their nose out of it in the first place, they wouldn’t have to worry about a contingency plan. Allow the corporate execs to make those decisions and suffer the wrath of the public should it go wrong. Let’s not spend valuable Congressional time and money ensuring the general public has access to their daily soap operas.
   
3. $1.5 Billion to offer consumers coupons on digital converters. This is on top of all of the time and money already wasted on this fiasco. $1.5 Billion. We can’t guarantee the longevity of Social Security. We can’t provide healthcare to millions of children nationwide. Our elderly can’t afford prescriptions. And yet, we can spend $1.5 Billion to ensure Americans can rot their brains in front of the boob tube.

This is completely ridiculous. If all of you could understand how hard my fingers are hitting the keyboard at this moment…

My kids do not have healthcare, but I’ll rest easy tonight knowing that nobody in America will miss the next episode of Survivor. What a load of crap.