Drat the Dutch and the Finns; those two technological giants already have switched to all-digital TV systems. Now, the Land O'The Free and the Home O'The Brave faces the Big Switch in a fortnight. What about all of the aluminum-foil-covered rabbit-ear antenna sets? What about the rooftop antenna sets? Without a digital TV converter box — not easily attached to old TV sets — millions of viewers will be staring at snow on their screens on February 17. The Krait (Gail Collins' distaff colleague on the NY Fishwrap's Op-Ed page is Maureen Dowd, aka The Cobra.) looks bemusedly at the flurry of activity to save TV for the geezers. Forget the onset of the Son of the Great Depression! The geezers might miss "The Lawrence Welk Show" replays on Saturday nights! The geezers might miss BillO on Faux News! O, the horror of it all! If this is a (fair & balanced) national crisis, so be it.
[x NY Fishwrap]
TV In Peril. Is Nothing Sacred?
By Gail Collins
Tag cloud for the following article.
On February 17, the nation’s TV broadcasters are scheduled to go all-digital, and Americans with unconverted analog televisions will get their reception cut off. Perhaps you are one of them. Perhaps you are in such a pathetic state of denial that you are not actually sure if you’re an analog person or not. Perhaps you think an analog is a rare burrowing creature found mainly in Australia.
All I can say is, shape up people. We are post-inauguration now. It’s all about the issues. You can’t palm yourself off as an informed citizen just because you know how many electoral votes Montana has.
In 2005, Congress voted to end analog broadcasting. The impetus was to raise money for the Bush tax cuts by selling off the emptied space. (Bad) But it also freed up lots of room for better Internet reception and public safety communication. (Good)
Other countries are doing the same thing. The Netherlands and Finland have already gone all-digital. In fact, the most unnerving thing about our Feb. 17 deadline is that the United States would be clocking in third. What are the odds that the Bush administration could pull off a complicated public initiative more efficiently than anybody but the Dutch and the Finns?
Everybody agrees that consumers shouldn’t suffer from the transition. So people who get analog reception — mainly those who use a rooftop antenna or indoor rabbit ears — are supposed to get converter boxes that allow them to get digital signals. In places like Britain, the government figures out which households are affected and then sends somebody to install the needed equipment.
Needless to say, the Republican-controlled Congress did not consider anything that socialistic in 2005. No, our plan was so deeply privatized that one DTV converter box retailer hired Joe the Plumber as a spokesman.
People who needed a converter box were supposed to request a $40 coupon, which could be used toward the purchase. The coupon was then sent to them by third-class mail — an interesting choice which sometimes meant the coupons, which expire in three months, did not arrive for four to eight weeks. The lucky recipient could then go to an electronics store, find the right kind of box, take it home and install it. (Just for fun, imagine the oldest member of your family doing this.)
Meanwhile, a public awareness campaign was under way. The Federal Communications Commission decided to spend $350,000 sponsoring a race car named “The Digital TV Transition.” Government officials no doubt imagined the golden moment when a Nascar announcer cried: “It’s the Digital TV Transition — over the finish line in record time.”
In the first race, the car hit a wall. In the second, it crashed and burned. Fans got to hear commentary along the line of: “Well, it looks like the Digital TV Transition is going to have to be towed off the track.”
Still, thanks to public service announcements on TV, an estimated 90 percent of TV owners now know something is up. Unfortunately, the announcements created a deep unease among people who were not affected by the transition at all, like cable or satellite subscribers.
Attention must be paid! The TV is in danger! Some folks thought they needed to buy a new set. Others may have been digging shelters in their backyards. Quite a few applied for those coupons even though they didn’t need them, creating a shortage.
Did I mention that once the government ran out of coupons, no new ones could be issued until the old ones expired? Or that people who didn’t manage to cash their coupons in before the expiration date couldn’t ask for a replacement?
At this point there are an estimated 6.5 million families still relying on unconverted televisions, and a waiting list for coupons. The Obama administration has asked for more time to straighten things out, and the Senate voted unanimously to postpone the deadline for four months. This shows that legislators of good will (Democrat Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas) can work in a bipartisan manner when the issue at hand is every American’s God-given right to television reception.
Then the bill moved to the House, where quick action required permission of a two-thirds majority. For once, the Republicans got a chance to make their presence felt, and they instantly sprang into action and refused to allow anybody to do anything. This shows you why Nancy Pelosi always seems a little irritable.
How could the Republicans not be worried about this? A disproportionate number of the endangered TV viewers are senior citizens. Bill O’Reilly’s entire audience is in danger!
The House is going to take another crack at the delay proposal soon. If they act, Obama officials will have another four months to resolve all the problems. As if they didn’t have enough to do. ♥
[Gail Collins joined the New York Times in 1995 as a member of the editorial board and later as an op-ed columnist. In 2001 she became the first woman ever appointed editor of the Times editorial page. At the beginning of 2007, she stepped down and began a leave in order to finish a sequel to her book, America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and Heroines. Collins returned to The Times as a columnist in July 2007. Besides America's Women, which was published in 2003, Ms. Collins is the author of Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celebrity and American Politics, and The Millennium Book, which she co-authored with her husband, Dan Collins. Her new book is about American women since 1960. Collins has a degree in journalism from Marquette University and an M.A. in government from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.]
Copyright © 2009 The New York Times Company
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Copyright © 2009 Sapper's (Fair & Balanced) Rants & Raves
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