Once again our wonderful United States Government has jumped the gun. Just as they have in the past with the food chain (remember, it all changed not to long ago) and also in the nutritional value in eggs. They have flip flopped on eggs more that John Kerry did during his run for the presidency. Which is all water under the bridge, I guess, but when it comes to the FCC's (Federal Communication Commission's) regulation of the Television Medias, and the People of the United States to go digital they have made a mistake. The Americas were not ready to do this a year ago (as Bush had ordered during his presidency, and Obama delayed in his first year), and still to this day we are not ready for it. Can you remember a time when you could turn on your television and skip through the channels and tune in every station in your area? Now we have to get up and tune the antenna on almost every station. Not only that, while watching we sometimes have to get up and re-tune the channel in. The channel will freeze up and go out, even on a clear and cloudless day, and what is worse it is worse during the day than it is at night.
I did some research to see what could be done to alleviate this problem. The only answer I found is to go out and buy a digital antenna, at a starting price of $50.00, that will only reach out a 30 miles radius. If you want to get stations that are out any further, the antennas start at $105.00 which doesn't include the instillation of the said antenna. So if you want to have the right to watch "free media television" comfortably you will have to pay. The government has already caused people to buy and attach a little black box to their digital television, which by the way you will need a box for each and every TV in your home. Although, in the government's defense they did give out two $40.00 vouchers to each American household, if you called in and registered for them.
The cheap box price started at $48.00 if bought at Walmart. The problem I found whith the black box is that it will not shut off, it will go into stand-by but it never shuts off, a waste of precious energy and money. If you believe in the conspiracy theory, then maybe these little black boxes are spying on you!
So, now some people will have to go out, buy a black box, an additional antenna, hire a professional to hook it up, and pay the price if they want to be able to watch "free media High Definition television" comfortably sitting on their couch. That is what we call, a not so Free American, TV.
In response to Ms. McKinley’s blog “Jumping the Gun, Free TV not so Free anymore,” I would have to say that I agree with her but only to a certain extent. Ms. McKinley’s blog is about the switch that the Bush administration made from analog to digital television and all the problems that are included with it such as having to purchase a converter box and antennas along with having to readjust them more often than not. I remember at that time I was working as an Event Rep for T-Mobile at 7 Wal-Mart locations in Austin. It did seem to bring a lot of discomfort to many Austenite’s, especially the ones that really didn’t keep themselves informed and missed the deadline for the vouchers and had to pay out of pocket for the new necessary equipment or those that waited till the entire shipment was gone and had to travel 45 minutes to an hour out of their way to get to a location that still had some in stock. I also find it very humorous that people believe that this is the government’s way of “spying” on us with the digital boxes now in every house, especially after learning that they’re tapping into our cell phone usage. I’m just not too sure that this was necessarily a bad change. It was simply a change that had to be done, not because of politics but because of the advanced technology that we are constantly inventing. The government had to step in and completely convert us as a whole to the new way otherwise it would be a big mess and there would be even more problems. This, in my opinion, was an example of us holding the President or even the government accountable for something that was not in their hands. As we learned in class, it’s unfortunate but true to just throw the blame on them. I think that the government actually helped a lot by providing the vouchers as oppose to what I’m sure the manufactures of the new digital television sets were looking forward to because they wanted a new TV in every house. It could have been that way, but the politicians knew that wouldn’t be right or fair for those who could not afford or see the need in a new TV. So this whole situation was and will continue to be uncomfortable for those that have the converters and antennas but we cannot blame it on anyone, it’s just the way of technology. I’m sure if we ask our grandparents or great grandparents if they’re happy with IPODs, CDs, or $5 burgers we’ll hear hours of stories of the way everything was cheaper and different but just because it wasn’t mandated by the government doesn’t make it any fairer.
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