Ridiculously Stupid
As I wrote back in December, the February deadline for transition to exclusively digital TV signals is near. Or it was, until this afternoon when the stupid house of representatives passed a bill to extend analog broadcasts through June. On the News Hour just now I saw stupid Maxine Waters up there saying something to the effect that, “people are going to be so confused when their TVs stop working”. Probably. But guess what? That’s the only thing that’s going to prompt some people to get the converter they need. Pushing back this transition is only going to make things worse. For a year now, stations have been running PSAs telling people the switch was in February. TV stations had been planning to stop broadcasting, and now they’re going to have to keep running an extra tower for the tiny population (something like six million people) not yet ready.
This is such a stupid idea. Mark my words: come June, the same people who are not ready today for the digital switch will still not be ready. Only having their TVs go blank will motivate them.
Filed under: Current Events, Television on February 4th, 2009 | 1 Comment »