Infinite Capacity For Outrage
Posted: Thursday, October 16, 2008
by Gregory Lewis
PopGnosis
Now I know I'm not crazy. From the B section of today's Berkshire Eagle, a story about a cable company that dropped a broadcast station from their October line-up:
"Time Warner officials say they shouldn't have to pay for a signal that is available for free by antennae and via the internet.
LIN Television officials say they don't want a lot, they just want something-less than a penny per viewer of their programming."
...
As I cross-pollinated ideas with other writers-peers is how I think of them-I realized that my thoughts on the following subject matter lacked proper expression.
My segue to Scott Brown's "Boston Legal Rips Bush Administration" story, a lament to the apathy of Americans to the large-scale injustice complex begins with a sign I read in the post office three weeks ago, indicating that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will be closing all broadcast television in February. I'd heard something about this earlier, but the impending reality has started to sink in.
A little background about myself is in order. I don't watch a lot of TV. I probably watch television once a month or less. For example, last night I watched the debates. Two weeks ago I helped someone hook up their satellite receiver, and so necessarily had to look to see that it was working. I watch DVDs, but that's different from being plugged into CNN, etc.
When I lived in Syracuse and was making pretty good money as a web programmer I had every opportunity to subscribe to cable, but I rejected it then, and continue to do so. Instead, I hooked up a rabbit-ears arrangement and was perfectly satisfied with what reception I got. A little Seinfeld here, a little PBS there, and local weather and news were all I desired.
Excuse me just a sec, the phone…
"Hello Mr. Lewis, and how are you today? That's goooood. Glopz Cable can upgrade you to our basic package for only…" (click).
Sorry, call me Cro-Magnon, but I will never "buy" television programming, only the television set used to watch the stuff. If Seinfeld doesn't naturally flow into my television over the airwaves, just as God had intended, then it's overpriced.
Unfortunately, somehow the cable providers caught wind of me, and the whining crybabies they are squealed to the FCC.
"Oh, I see. I see," droned the FCC in its most paternalistic voice. "Well, don't you worry your little head, Big Daddy will fix that market scofflaw Mr. Lewis. We'll make him pay you to be able to watch Seinfeld reruns, the Yankees and we'll throw in Bill Moyers, for his insolence.
The FCC, in collusion with who knows which communication magnates mandated that broadcast television must go the way of the Pony Express. After February 17, 2009, anyone who wants to watch their local television stations will have to get it funneled through their local cable provider, or via satellite.
An actual government web site all about the changes reads something like a foreign powers invasion declaration:
"...all full-power broadcast television stations in the United States will stop broadcasting on analog airwaves and begin broadcasting only in digital. Digital broadcasting will allow stations to offer improved picture and sound quality and additional channels. Find out more about whether or not you will be impacted by the digital TV (DTV) transition."
Improved picture and sound quality? I hadn't noticed anything inferior in my viewing pleasure until they pointed it out. I still don't see it, even after pointing it out.
"Not fair!" I complained to my west coast friend "D."
"Radio's next," I ominously forecast.
D was more circumspect, a word sometimes euphemistically substituted for complacent.
"With all the torture at Abu Grahib and Guantanamo, whether or not TV shows come over the airways or through a cable is pretty low on my list of things to worry about," said D.
I must respectfully disagree. Not only to D, but to the reader who agrees that injustices must be processed by order of priority. You see, my big heart has the capacity to carry outrage enough for multiple injustices. If we are limited to correcting only one moral iniquity at a time, nothing would ever get fixed. A human is the most universal appliance ever devised. We are not ants, with their specialized functions in society, or bees, that are either the queen, drone, or worker. In all the animal kingdom the human is uniquely able to exist simultaneously on multiple levels.
Even Microsoft Windows doesn't hold a candle to the village candle maker, who not only goes home at night to play Parcheesi with his wife and children, but can make up his own mind, yes, actually override his physiological programming and attend to his hygienic urges at a time and place of his choosing. Windows seems to be on a fixed update schedule, and can't wait until my high-resolution photo email send is complete.
The FCC rule seems terribly emergent in the short run, but terribly inconsequential in the long run. In four months time you will either have a black coaxial cable plugged into the back of your television (and the FCC has generously provided phone numbers and web site addresses where RF converters can be purchased) , or your television simply will not receive shows.
D said he couldn't feel any pain, as each successive usurpation of his liberties was small and incremental.
"D, don't you see that is exactly how these guys get away with it? They don't use a coarse-grained sandpaper to wear you down; it's more like a fine emery cloth. Sure, you've only lost one-one thousandth of an inch of your liberty today, which you can't possibly notice. But in the space of a year you will have lost a third of an inch of it, and when you look in the mirror next year, you'll notice."
I don't know for a fact that D bought into it. His silence might have been polite reflection, confusion, or maybe he was just busy frying eggs and bacon over in San Francisco.
On Rosh Hashanah I attended a prayer ceremony and a feast at the rabbi's house. After the feast the guests released their solemnity by coalescing into discussion groups with those seated nearby. Across from me was a man named Brett, who said he owns a radio station. He reminded me of Weird Al Yankovic in the ‘90s comedy movie FM.
When I remarked to Brett what I had read in the post office, he wasn't the least bit sympathetic.
"So, why should that be bad? That's just the way the technology is going, you can't stop it," Brett reasoned.
"Brett, you own a radio station. I can tune my radio to 92.3 and hear the music you're sending over the airwaves. But, radio is next," I warned.
"I don't believe that," he dismissed me with a wave. "How can you compare what's happening in television to radio?"
"Look Brett, you can already subscribe to satellite and internet radio. People do it all over, in their cars and in internet cafes. Like Sirius Radio," I pointed out. "Mark my words, Brett, the day is not that far off when you will have to close your radio station just as many broadcast community television stations have had to close because your listener base will have to subscribe to a service, a middle-man, that grants them the privilege of listening to what they used to get for free."
I think I got through to Brett. You can tell when the other guy's head slightly lists to the side, the eyes scan the floor and the lip quivers with indecision.
A pause in conversation was quiet enough that I could hear the soft susurrus of emery cloth defoliating skin.
We are undergoing progressive compartmentalization. It's divide-and-conquer. You won't complain about what I've lost, because you live in the comfort of your status quo. I won't complain about what you have lost, because I'm self-absorbed in my own status quo, never mind the tortured nobodies antiseptically isolated from the rest of humanity!
We will all look back at the 1987 movie Broadcast News, which starred William Hurt and Albert Brooks as rival reporters competing for Holly Hunter's attention, and ask wistfully, "remember when the days before cable bills."
I gaze doe-eyed at the typing pool in the movie The Desk Set, a ‘40s remake of the American John Henry folk tale, when Katherine Hepburne challenged Spenser Tracey's modern IBM Electronic Brain gizmo to a knowledge duel.
Still further back is the phantom beat of a rhythm, the quaternary sixteenth notes of a galloping pony, with its 90-pound rider ducking arrows, hail and parched frontier, saddled with a leather satchel bearing a letter from Aunt Emma back east.
This Article has been viewed 185 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)Hey Gregory, I do believe you can trot off to your nearest Best Buy and buy some upgraded "rabbit ears" that will receive digital signal w/o the cable... this subject came up around here in Houston due the outages experienced during Hurricane Ike. We were all asking what we would do when analog didn't exist. A friend of mine produced a thing that looked kinda like a 2 ft space ship and announced that it was digital rabbit ears, that he could hook it up to the tv and still get the signal....don't know that it's a fact, just know what he said. :)Please log in to respond to this comment.Thank you Jean,
The rabbit ears are fine now. In mid February, all analog broadcasting of television signals will conclude :-(
Unless...there's always Canadian and Mexican tv? From tapping maple trees to bull fights, I'm sure there's a world of activity the cable channels don't cover.
- gPlease log in to respond to this comment.What we were told is that if we had a tv capable of receiving a digital signal and these digital ears, we could receive the tv signal even after analog stops broadcasting. Does that make sense?Please log in to respond to this comment.Hi Jean,Now you have me wondering, so I took a peek at the fcc official information site:
How Do I Receive Digital Broadcasts If I Don’t Subscribe To Cable Or Satellite?
If you receive only free over-the-air television programming, the type of TV you own, either a digital TV or an analog TV, is very important. Consumers who receive only free over-the-air television may view digital programming through a TV set with a built-in digital tuner (integrated DTV) or a digital-ready monitor with a separate digital tuner set-top box. (Both of these digital television types are referred to as a DTV). The only additional equipment required to view over-the-air digital programming with a DTV is a regular antenna, either on your roof or a smaller version on your TV such as “rabbit ears.”
If you have an analog television, you will have to purchase a digital-to-analog set-top converter box to attach to your TV set to be able to view over-the-air digital programming
...So the FCC says "over the air" will still be around, but the sign in the post office made it sound like if you don't have digital service, you can get it through a cable provider. Now I'm more confused than ever.
If I must be self-reflective (more dignified than kicking the furniture), you can take the point of view that my article was written by one of a crankety codger who's reluctant to change, if not exactly afraid to change...a procrastinator, while not quite a xeno-phobe.
I read a good book about radio, taking us from Marconi and Tesla to FM. FM, as we know, provides a much better signal, and in stereo, over AM. Yet, there was much resistance to the transition, even by giant radio making companies that were mostly making AM radios, like Westinghouse. In a year I will write back to post a picture of my I SURVIVED DIGITAL TV t-shirt.
Please log in to respond to this comment.
Gregory, I'm glad I stopped in to admire your blog. I like this article. I have rabbit ears too. I, too, refuse to pay to watch TV. If it doesn't float in 'naturally' it isn't worth viewing. I get what I care to watch on one set (bought in 1989) without an antenna. Go figure! I did order the coupon for the HD converter box, just in case. If it costs more than the coupon, so be it. I'll donate my TVs and catch what I can on the Internet.
Good reporting! I like your sense of humor, too. Thanks.Please log in to respond to this comment.Hehe,
Hi Avis! Love your stories here, lady.
I had a hunch I wasn't alone. I'm not miserable, but I can still use the company! No antenna? Where'd you get your tv set? Maybe I can trade mine in for the newer model.
Thanks for the good word,
- gPlease log in to respond to this comment.Thanks for liking my stories, G! My dad (now deceased) was called "G" for George. So, you were cool in my book, immediately! *laffin'* And, I'm a native Floridian. Love that part of the state where you are. Nope, you're not alone. The TV's a GE, 13" even and still going strong. Now I have a Zenith and Samsung that are larger, the Samsung is even HDTV but it can't get anything without an antenna. It belongs to my temp roomie. I just don't have a compelling need to watch TV. I will spend more time on the net, however.
I'll read more of your articles as time goes by. I look forward to it. :-)Please log in to respond to this comment.
Fantastic article. I do not watch much TV, once in a great while when my daughter rents a movie I might watch it with her. I do not have cable or satellite. But I was infuriated at what was done for obvious reasons and I agree that radio is next. I mean why not, nobody REALLY got too upset about TV and one more lost right, so of course radio is next. "They" know now pretty much that they can just keep taking everyone's rights away piece by piece without too much fuss.BlessingsPlease log in to respond to this comment.
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