Reclaim the Media

In a new challenge to the digital TV transition, the government’s program offering $40 coupons for TV converter boxes is out of money, weeks faster than anyone expected.

The Department of Commerce today announced that it now has committed the entire $1.34 billion available for the coupons and is starting to put new requesters on a waiting list.

In the latest in an ongoing series of eye-rolling developments, the government agency in charge of the digital television converter box coupon program – the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration – said it will likely stop processing coupon requests as early as next week because it expects to run out of money.

Think about that for a minute. NTIA says it will stop processing coupons at the precise moment that consumers will be needing them most – the last few weeks leading up to the digital television switchover.

Larry Lessig’s latest article in Newsweek is very disappointing, a pre-dot-bomb retread that backs down from all his recent progressive thinking. It’s so dated, one wonders if it was written in the last ten years, or if someone just found this article now and decided to print it. When was this written? 1995? 1998? Are you sure this was written by Larry Lessig, not George Gilder? If this is what it purports to be, then it helps explain why Larry is a very good teacher, but he should never be let closer to a telecom network than the handset.

(Universal Declaration of Human Rights video by Seth Brau)

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted on Dec. 10, 1948. Article 19 states: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. Full text below...

A year-long Congressional investigation of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin found "egregious abuses of power," though it was unclear whether the nation's top telecommunications regulator broke any rules or laws during his leadership.

The report released today on the probe, titled "Deception and Distrust" and led by Reps. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, found Martin suppressed information and manipulated data to serve his agenda.

Even though the crises facing the financial and automotive industries were born primarily of the actions (or inaction) of those in positions of power in private industry and in government, many conservative media figures have assigned blame to specific groups of less wealthy or less influential people -- the poor, minorities, undocumented immigrants, and union members, among others -- disregarding the facts that belie such assignments of blame.

When the president-to-be got elected, in part, by mastering Internet social media, and now wants to spread the Web’s powers to citizens as part of his platform — how does public broadcasting fit in?

Barack Obama’s educational and public-service goals track closely with pubcasting’s. This is the candidate whose February 2007 candidacy speech had the ring of public broadcasting’s classic inclusiveness pledge in an applause line: “... and let’s lay down broadband lines through the heart of inner cities and rural towns all across America!”

But despite its online successes, pubcasting still puts most of its sweat into what webheads demean as a “legacy” platform. And what about that geezer name — public broadcasting?

Over-the-air TV viewers across the country should now be getting ready for the Feb. 17 switch to Digital TV. By now most of us are aware of the steps we need to take: Order a coupon for $40 off a DTV converter box; (2) use the coupon to buy a box, and (3) hook it up.

Some of us may need a new UHF/VHF antenna to pick up the digital TV signals. When you buy your DTV box, retailers will try to sell you an expensive antenna as well (the government coupons don't cover antennas). Here's a cheaper option: the folks at Make Magazine provide instructions on how to build your own antenna out of coat hangers and scrap wood.

While tens of millions of Americans were waiting in line to vote on Nov. 4, the Federal Communications Commission was making its own historic decision. In a unanimous vote, the FCC approved public access to the unused part of the television band known as white spaces.

Analog television signals require a substantial buffer between channels to prevent interference (that's what channels 3, 6, 8, 10, and 12 were for in New York). With the transition to more efficient digital broadcasting in February, a lot of spectrum will become available. In