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Obama Recommends Delay In Digital TV Switch
gregg writes "Six weeks before the nation's television stations are scheduled to convert to digital transmission, the Obama administration is asking Congress to consider a delay. In the most significant sign to date of concern about the impending digital TV transition, the Obama transition team co-chair John Podesta said the government funds to support the change are 'woefully inadequate' and said that the digital switch date, Feb. 17, should be 'reconsidered and extended.'"
Correction: What you really meant was "what the broadcasters wanted in the first place: Nothing.
Because I can damn well tell you that I've wanted them to go digital since the change was first suggested the first time around and contrary to your assumption, I and many others like me are viewers.
Well gee, if your view represents a significant portion of OVA viewers, then why aren't they all ready and chomping at the bit for the switch? Sorry for not using a qualifier like "most", but fact is that most OVA viewers don't care about the switch other than it breaking their TV, and never wanted to switch in the first place.
the select group of people who... still haven't bothered to get a converter box wanted". Which would also be true. And fuck them too.
You mean all the ones who couldn't get a converter box because there weren't any on the shelves when they had a valid coupon in hand, and now can't get a new coupon because its out of money, and don't want to pay full price for a converter box for the change that they never wanted in the first place. Yeah fuck them, and fuck you too. If hope you didn't use a coupon if you were so eager to get digital broadcasts. Those were for people who were using antennae because they couldn't afford anything else.
The spectrum is a public good. It should be used in the most effective way possible. What are AT&T and Verizon going to do with their blocks? I don't care. Not because it's not important, but because it's not relevant to this discussion.
Yes it is relevant to a discussion where you're bitching about the "public good" and "public resources... being used responsibly and effectively". If you don't know and don't care if these private corps are doing something beneficial to the public, then how the fuck can you complain about it's current use? By being a huge fucking hypocrite, that's how. At least now it is being used for public good, even if inefficiently. You don't know and don't care if that will be the case in a month, though we both know it's going to be used for the benefit of AT&T and Verizon exclusively, so don't tell me you care now.
Not hand hold a bunch of people who aren't going to give a shit ever, until the day everything actually stops working.
"Hand-hold" as in "not fuck over". You surely care about the "public good".
The enemies of Democracy are
That's still $40 he could have used on something else, for something that he shouldn't have to, and wouldn't have had to were it not for government mandate, and which they said they were going to offer coupons for so guys like him wouldn't have to face this arbitrary burden.
So let's push back the date a little more, dig into the profit the government made selling this spectrum to private corps, and actually make good on that promise so everything goes smooth and everybody's happy.
I'm not sure why this is so controversial.
The enemies of Democracy are