Digital TV Convergence And The FCC?

Well, there's really two issues--one is the current overconcentration of ownership and control within a few media conglomerates. The other is regulation of standards.

The latter first: when dealing with any technology, it is necessary to set standards. Imagine, for example, if there were no required protocols for computers--we'd have no internet, because the computers couldn't talk to each other. You can't even have simple things like ready-to-use light bulbs, nuts and bolts, etc. without these standards.

The point--the new standards on TVs are necessaryy to keep pace with changing technology.

The issue o fthe monoplistic practices and the complicity of the FCC is another matter. That, however, is directly due to changes made inthe late 1990s by tthe GOP-controlled Congress that lifted certain mandates. Up to that time, the FCC was required to limit the extent to which any single company could dominate the media in any area, or nationally. They lost that authority when the Republicans in Congress ordered them to lift such restrictions, allowing media conglomerates to form and control the public airwaves. If we want this special interest groups power curbed, those restrictions--and the powerof the FCC to enforce them--must be restored.

Hardest part is explaining this to old people who still get up and walk across the room to change the channel.

They are not the stuffiest. The department of natural resources is, in Wisconsin anyway.