Re: Various replies

["Chris Beckwith" <beckwith@ime.net>]

Dib9@aol.com wrote:

> As for the unfunded mandate issue, that's true but anyone running a business
> knows that government at all levels imposes new costs every year.  We may not
> like it but digital TV conversion is no worse than the myriad of other mandates
> all businesses are hit with.

Just the same, I find it odd that the awarding of digital spectrum to current 
analog commercial TV broadcasters is called a multi-billion-dollar "giveaway" 
while the cost associated with conversion to digital for public TV is called an 
"unfunded federal mandate."  I never heard a peep about mandates when it 
was a commercial broadcaster who had to spend millions of dollars to 
convert.  What I *did* see was Channels 6 and 13 selling out to out-of-state 
corporations after generations of local family ownership and the resulting 
cutbacks in news and a flood of infomercials.  And anyway, the analog 
spectrum has to be surrendered to the federal government in a few years 
without any compensation to the displaced broadcasters, commercial or non.

Take care,
Chris