Tue, 25 Dec 2007

Many TV Stations Won't Make the Digital Switch

What a scam! The DTV switchover, mandated by the FCC, is a windfall for consumer electronics companies and broadcast equipment manufacturers, but will prove to be a gigantic pain in the rear for everyone else.

What fascinates me, though, is a subtext that few have noted. The Fairness Doctrine went away in the 1980's, and despite repeated attempts to bring it back, remains dead. Most conservative commentators are virulently opposed to the re-imposition of this onerous rule, complaining that it violates their private property rights, and curtails their First Amendment rights to free speech.

Where is their outcry now, over the mandate that all broadcast be digital by February of 2009? Does not the government mandating a specific technology violate their private property rights?

Not as things currently stand it seems: they're willing to acknowledge the governments ownership and control of the airwaves when it comes to the physical plant required to run a TV station, but not when it comes to the content that station carries. But doesn't the owner of a medium have a say over the content transmitted by that media? "He who pays the piper calls the tune".

I've blogged about this before - it's just another example of the inconsistency of the vulgar libertarian movement.

Some religious, minority, and shopping channels may see their transmissions lost in translation.

(link) [U.S. News & World Report]

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