So the fed government is handing out $40 a head so you can watch TV

[TwixVoy]

Sure says a TON about this country and what it's people consider a priority if you ask me. I work for a retailer and we just got papers explaining that these rebates will be in the form of credit/debit cards that the customer will give us to swipe. No doubt a direct electronic deduction from the treasury every time.

This is truly pathetic. We can't find money for ANYTHING to actually better peoples lives, but we can find a ton of it for war and now... TV. How about sending this money in to our schools instead? How many millions of dollars are being handed out for TV converters, and why couldn't that money go to our schools? Why couldn't it go to national health care? Why are we being told social security might have to be eliminated because we just can't find the money for it, but we can find money for this?

Of course American Idol keeps the masses distracted from it is going on, so I'm sure the neocons have a vested interest in making sure reality TV is viewable by as many people as possible.

I have lost faith in this country. What a joke.

[liberal N proud]

1. Have to keep the great pacifier running

Otherwise the great propaganda tool might not be as affective

[zanne]

2. It's so the people who "own" our airwaves...

Can make even more $.

[tkmorris]

3. I hear what you are saying

And you certainly are correct in that television is a great pacifier, a useful distraction toi keep the masses entertained while the powerful do what they will.

I don't see this situation quite as you do however. The changeover to digital television is a useful thing, allowing for more broadcast choices in a smaller bandwidth. Of course, it also allows the government to auction of part of that bandwidth as well, which is a nice windfall for them. Consumers do still benefit however, provided they can actually receive the digital broadcasts.

Therein lies the rub. A changeover to digital is only useful if the analog stations are retired completely, with all of their bandwidth hogging ways. What would have happened though if the government had simply mandated the change and done nothing to assist the consumer in the changeover? There would have been outrage as millions of people discovered their televisions no longer worked, that's what. Furthermore it would have been portrayed as an outrage against the poor primarily, because the vast majority of television viewers who are not poor already have cable or satellite, which will not be affected by this at all.

The plan as it is allows the changeover to be made without forcing anyone to go out and purchase a new set, or pay out of pocket for a digital converter box. I think all the outrage is just a tempest in a teapot frankly.

[TwixVoy]

4. Therein lies the problem

"There would have been outrage"

Yet we have a stolen election in 2000 and you hear not a word. Yet we have a war based on total lies and you hear not a word. We have an administration which has constantly lied to the people. We have seen our freedoms restricted. People can not afford health care. We now sanction and allow torture. Where is the outrage for all of this? There is none.

But DAMN - people have trouble viewing TV and there is going to be widespread "outrage". That says it all right there.

[Echo In Light]

6. In some respects, this country will ultimately get what it deserves

[TwixVoy]

12. It's really sad

[RC]

7. I agree. and to top it off television is not much more than a device to numb the mind.

A mass distraction from reality in general. Our news is propaganda. The programs are mostly uninformative crap.
Television is the main reason this country is not up in arms over the crimes we are committing across the rest of the world.
'Survivor' is more important than bombing wedding parties/sleeping Innocent civilians from 40 thousand feet and saying we killed some more #2 al-Qaeda leaders.
Yeah, we've made wars so clean for the suppliers of the canon fodder, Survivor really is more important.

[Echo In Light]

8. Renown science fiction author, Harlan Ellison, released two compilations...

...of critical essays he wrote about the tell-a-vision medium of the 60s/early 70s. There were attempts on his life over this!!!! The shows have changed, but the underlying song of the brainwashing device remains the same...



http://www.michaelallsup.com/glass_teat.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Glass_Teat

http://www.islets.net/essays/glassteat.html

[bdamomma]

19. and apparently this thuggish regime we have knows that Americans

are pacified by watching it. Thus no coverage of war, no view of coffins coming back, cause they know if they did show numerous coffins coming back with the dead the citizens not consumers of the US would be out in the streets, now is it time for pitchforks and torches.

[BigDaddy44]

11. What about the internet?

Save your false outrage. What if the same thing happened and all of a sudden the internet because obsolete unless you bought some fancy gizmo? Climb down off of that soapbox of yours for a minute and have a beer. Chill. Relax. Here, American Idol's coming up. Pull up a chair. Can't believe they dumped Brooke; she was really hot...........

[TwixVoy]

13. TOTALLY wrong comparision

On the internet EVERYONE has a voice. How many little people have a voice on TV? No one - unless they are being made to be laughed at nationally eating the grossest shit imagineable for peoples laughs. Or being put on national trial - be it our courts being made in to entertainment or on american idol.

On the internet you can find the TRUTH. On FAUX news where can you find the truth? Where can you get an opposing view point? You CAN'T because there is none. The corporations and neocons control the message 100% unopposed.

TOTALLY different situation my friend,

[BigDaddy44]

18. Sorry, you're right

I forgot that if its on the internet is HAS to be true. Where EVERYTHING on TV is a lie. (sorry; temporary insanity; thanks for setting me straight)

[TwixVoy]

20. Never did I say that

But you can find FAR more truth on the internet than on FOX "news".

[Gormy Cuss]

23. The only reason that the government is involved is that private industry failed.

Look at older discussions on DTV and the argument was always that the industry would wow consumers into accepting the newer transmission mode. It was only after private industry botched the job that lobbyists convinced Congress to force the issue.

The 1.5B estimated cost for these vouchers may be offset by the sale of rights for the new broadcast bands (estimated to go as high as 15B, but that's not a guaranteed return. Even if the sale does yield 15B or more, I'd bet that figure pales in comparison to the profit potential for wireless service providers and other interested private parties.

[orangerevolution]

5. Mine is direct deposit

otherwise paper check.

[Tesha]

10. The OP is speaking about the $40 "coupons" to buy a digital TV converter.

These definitely come in the form of "debit cards"; we have
our two coupons already in hand.

NOTE: They're only good for 90 days after issue!

Tesha

[high density]

9. Well the Federal Government is making money off of auctioning off the spectrum...

...So it only makes sense that some of that money gets funneled into helping people transition to digital broadcast television. Then again, various other electronics go obsolete every day and we're not subsidizing the replacement of those things (e.g. HD-DVD, analog cellphones, computers, etc.) I guess the difference here is that it was a mandated obsolescence from the government.

[TwixVoy]

14. So that makes it a wise investment?

So because some people may not be able to watch TV for a little while that means the money is better spent on TV rather than our education system or health care?

[onenote]

15. the auction of the spectrum is bringing in around 20 billion dollars

The coupon program is estimated to cost 1.5 billion. Pretty good return, if you ask me.

Indeed, we should be spending more on the transition. Poor people, elderly, minorities are going to have problems because the government is doing a piss poor job of informing people (compare this to the information about the Y2K "threat"). In the UK, with 1/5 as many people, the government spent $600 million publicizing that country's transition from analog to digital tv; here in the US, the government has allocated $5 million to inform the public and is relying heavily on the consumer electronics, broadcast, cable and satellite industries to pick up the slack, all of which simply guarantees a morass of different messages, each spun with that particular industry's interest -- not the public interest -- in mind.

[TwixVoy]

17. Auction of the spectrum

To who? To FOX and the like. Giving them even MORE control over our airwaves. We may have got some of our money back from them temporarily, but is the cost of further dumbing down worth it? Apparently I am the minority in believing it is not.

[onenote]

21. do you actually think you know what you're talking about? Cause you don't.

If you have a link to Fox winning any of the auctioned analog broadcast spectrum, please provide it.

The spectrum that was auctioned is not going back to broadcasters for use in delivering video content. It will be used to provide wireless data and voice services. Yes, the big winners were big established phone companies, Verizon and ATT -- but how does that contribute to the dumbing down of anything?

[TwixVoy]

24. They are all one don't you get it?

All these corporations share one agenda. Rather you are talking about FOX or Verizon they all have NO loyalty to any american citizen. All we are doing is giving them more power at our expense.

[bdamomma]

16. we should have a shut off TV for a week or more.

[onenote]

22. what is stopping you?

[Touchdown]

25. Oh' for Christ's sake! Evolve already.

The rest of the world has already gone to HD/Digital TV. We are the last holdouts because of crying luddites like you.

This was supposed to have already been a done deal 2 years ago, but the "crappy 75 year old technology is just fine for me, the only important people who's opinions should count, so everybody else must suffer my decisions." contingent got it pushed back 3 years.

These cards/coupons were already made into law in the 90s, and Bill Clinton signed it. The war didn't happen back then, and American Idol wasn't even an idea yet, and the 1996 telecom act which set in motion "Big Media" wasn't an issue yet. They are for poor people, because as owned by big corporations as they are, TV is still a place for important public service announcements, local news, etc. It was considered important for the poor among us to have these boxes, so they didn't have to buy new, expensive TVs. I think that's very a liberal thing to do.

I haven't worked at Best Buy since 1995, and I knew all about the HDTV rollout and what was going to happen. Many others who weren't in electronics retailing did as well. You people act as if this is all new, yet some here lecture the rest of us about "not paying attention".

BTW: There is a real fact based, investigative reporting channel, that does talk about Darfur, Voting Machines, Alternative Energy sources, banning SUVs in London, Cuba, Iraq and corporate corruption therein, Mormon boys who were thrown out of their communities for being "redundant", and many more important issues on TV. It's called HDNET, and you can only get it through Digital service. It has no analog signal. They also have Dan Rather...yes he's still on TV.