Looking Through the Television Tube Darkly

If there is one thing that I have learned it is that with any "crisis" that involves the use of federal dollars, there is usually somebody making a killing while the general public is left to suffer or bear the consequences.

Let's take the proposed delay by the Obama White House to move the switch from analog to digital TV back to mid-June.

The FCC controls everything that is utilized in certain frequencies around the nation. TV has come through as an analog signal for decades, this takes up a certain amount of frequency but back in the Clinton years scientists found that if they switched the signal to digital then they could fit it into a much smaller frequency. Which meant the remaining frequencies could be utilized by other technologies. Or companies could buy more shares, or bandwidth, on those frequencies. So the move was made to switch all television signals from analog to digital on Feb. 17, 2009. You have probably seen all of those public service announcements by unknown Congressmen and scientists talking about the switch. The federal government got involved by selling, or giving vouchers, for free converter boxes.

Then they ran out of boxes. Or so they say. This analog/digital switch only affects 9% of American households. Kind of hard to underestimate how many boxes you need for that. So for the sake of making sure that all Americans could watch the propaganda box adequately, the Obama administration is proposing that the switch be delayed for a few months.

What a nice guy! Thinking of all of those hard-working Americans who wouldn't be able to enjoy American Idol, the NCAA basketball tournament, or another life-changing episode of ER.

I say "Baloney" and here is why.

Advising the Obama transition team is one R. Gerard Salemme. He is a big-time donor to Obama and advising President Obama on telecom issues. Well, Mr. Salemme is also the vice president of policy for a company called Clearwater. Clearwater is a partner of Sprint and they help Sprint customers connect to the internet, like through their BlackBerry.

Sprint is launching a 4G network, the latest to help you connect with your Sprint products to the internet. It is much faster and more reliable than the current 3G networking available on most phone products. Sprint, with the help and guidance of Clearwater, is already up and running, ahead of their competition by owning their spectrum of frequency.

Their main competitor, Verizon, also has a 4G network ready to push out to their spectrum of frequency that they have bought from the FCC. But their spectrum will not be available until the switch from analog to digital TV takes place, then their spectrum will be freed up.

So, if you are Mr. R. Gerald Salemme on the Obama transition team advising on telecom issues and you have the opportunity to delay your main competitor's move to 4G (your company, Clearwater, partnered with Sprint, is the only currently available 4G network) , what would your advice to President Obama be? Might it be to delay the transition and give your company 4 more months as the exclusive provider of 4G services?

Could there be a small conflict of interest here?

Hmmm, I thought Barack Obama campaigned on a platform of transparency. So far his picks for Cabinet posts have been awful and surprisingly sophomoric. His party has come down hard on transparency with the rescinding of House rules and the proposed check-card policy. Now this?

Transparency that is opaque, if you ask me. Stop with the false philanthropy, again, and tell the American people why the change in policy. We went through this with Clinton and both Bushes, let's not start anew. Read the article about it here.

Here is a thought - turn off the tube and make this a moot point.

P.S. - Love this image, it and others like it can be found here.