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Failures Mark First National Test of Emergency Alert System
An anonymous reader writes "The first full-scale test of the National Emergency Alert System failed on Tuesday at 2 PM. Some radio and television networks did not air any alert, while the performance of others was inconsistent. 'Some DirectTV customers reported hearing Lady Gaga's "Paparazzi" play during the test. Some Comcast subscribers saw their cable boxes turn to QVC before the alert, while Time Warner Cable customers in New York did not see any alert at all.'" If you were tuned to any American broadcaster at the time, did the alert system reach you?
... because that is exactly what you would expect in a test of such a large system. The real surprise is if it would have worked without any issues on the first go round.
The local cable broadcaster here lost approx 10 channels after the test, including CNN, FOX, and DISCOVERY. They all switched to the NAT GEO channel without audio for upwards of an hour after the test ran.
In addition, the test video was jumpy, kept blacking out, audio kept dropping out, etc.
All in all, if it had been a real emergency, losing the 2 major news channels would have been real motivation to start loading ammo and supplies and gassing up the bug out mobile. ;)
So Time Warner NY failed to implement the national emergency system that we use in the event of an *inbound ICBM attack*? When it had been announced for weeks in advance?
Curse their sudden but inevitable betrayal.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
Government negativism has reached a questionable new high. Most often the criticisms are not even quantified (as in this story), not compared to private industry (where possible) (e.g. Social Security fraud), and not compared to historical or global norms. The economy sucks and the public is united only in being unhappy about it, in which they feel some solidarity, yet can't form a consensus on what to do about it.