Boztopia.com

Yesterday FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein toured Los Angeles to speak to community leaders about the delay in the digital television transition, originally scheduled for next Tuesday, February 17, but rescheduled for a once-and-for-all-we-really-mean-it-this-time cutoff of June 12. I covered the event both in article form and on Twitter.

The event (and some spirited debates about DTV on Twitter) inspired me to expound on this issue further, and how it relates to the “digital divide,” between those who can afford Internet access and those who can’t, or those who can afford it but have no available choices due to lack of developed Internet infrastructure.

I’m a voracious reader of tech blogs such as Ars Technica and Engadget, and I was shocked at the utter contempt tech-savvy readers had for those people who would be left in the dark when analog broadcasts go digital. Look at the picture heading up this Engadget article on the delay, then read some of the comments. Even sympathetic readers get beat up on for defending the delay, and then it turns into an Obama-bashing fest. You stay classy, nerd herd.

What nerds don’t get–what they have never gotten–is a twofold principle. One, not everyone is as naturally tech-savvy as you are. Two, not everyone wishes to be or needs to be.  There’s an absolute element of class bias at work among those who oppose the DTV delay, even though it commits them no harm or foul whatsoever. If you can’t afford HD cable or satellite, or haven’t successfully gotten your video needs over the Internet, what good are you? You’re just “lazy,” “ignorant,” or “retarded,” as the thinking goes. Read the comments if you think I exaggerate.

As Adelstein noted in his speech, is it really fair to ask some poor old woman to climb on to her roof to replace her over-the-air (OTA) TV antenna, pay through the nose to get someone else to do it, or be without basic television service? Of course. But the DTV program has been so badly mishandled and plagued with glitches that this may be the case if more money isn’t put into the coupon program and more educational efforts put into effect immediately.

Let’s not forget, this isn’t an issue of entitlement as much as it is access to information. Minorities, low-income families, and the elderly are the least likely to have regular Internet access, and are much more reliant on TV for information and public awareness as well as entertainment. Cut that out from under them, and there will be serious problems informing people in case of a disaster or emergency of some kind.

Adelstein also noted that there’s an economic wrinkle to consider now. At the time the DTV transition was brainstormed, the economy was still performing reasonably well. Now, our global financial system is in tatters, people are out of work by the millions, and fewer and fewer people can afford increasingly expensive cable or satellite TV–especially as both services convert their channel packages to HD, which costs more money. So there’s an increased reversion to OTA TV usage (aside from getting your shows via the Internet), which means an increased demand for the converter boxes that can interpret digital signals for analog TVs.

But the arm of the Commerce Department which handled the converter box coupon program–the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)–completely fucked the dog from the very start under the less-than-watchful eye of Bush and Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, so we have 2 million people still waiting for coupons and counting.

One of the reasons why I champion rural broadband investment is precisely this issue–people should not be left in the dark (literally or figuratively) because they have the temerity to be poor, old, or not the right color. I refer you back to my nightmarish misadventure in Oklahoma–imagine how much better informed and prepared we all could’ve been with a working wireless network or a fully functional array of OTA digital channels. I’m glad to see that both investment in wireless broadband for rural areas and DTV outreach funding has made it through both versions of the stimulus bill, and I hope that they’ll survive what promises to be an arduous conference session.*

This isn’t just an ideological issue for me. It’s personal. I think about my mother, alone in her condo in New Jersey and recovering from major surgery, who nearly got dicked over by her cable provider into upgrading equipment she didn’t need because they lied about how the DTV transition would affect her service.  I think about my sister and her family in snowy upstate New York, who, in her own words, “can run our own music server, I tweet, FB, and even have a bluetooth. And – ZOMG I have DTV – no cable.” Should they be cut off from the wider world because they can’t afford the latest and greatest widget, or because incumbent telecom and cable monopolies deny them any real choices for TV except their way or no way?

Let’s not forget that many families and communities in large urban areas–like Los Angeles–are on the wrong side of the digital divide, due to lack of affordability, infrastructure development, or outreach.

No one should be denied the right to participate in our culture for any reason, and TV is still one of the most common cultural touchstones we have. In fact, I’d say that it’s more so than ever (even as the quality of the average show has dropped), due to the endless proliferation of blogs, LJs, communities, tweets, and Facebook groups that take an act of passive consumption (watching television) and turn it into a proactive communal experience. You can choose not to participate–I know one favorite blogger of mine who’s been without TV for four-plus years now–but the choice should be yours, and you can’t make that choice without having the best information and options available.

And to those whining about how much of a waste of taxpayer dollars this is: We’re giving away billions of dollars to banks to reward them for our own bad behavior. We spend $10 billion a month on a war we never should have begun. We spend billions more propping up despotic regimes all around the globe in the name of “national security.” I’d rather spend $650 million to make sure the DTV transition is done right than one more red cent on a bomber, nuke, or bank bailout we absolutely don’t need.

* = Unfortunately or fortunately, the NTIA is also the same agency which will be responsible for administering the grants for rural broadband development under the stimulus bill. Let’s hope Judd Gregg and NTIA administrator Anna Gomez do a better job than their predecessors.