Posted on 06/15/2009 2:57:47 PM PDT by Scott Martin
The long-awaited switch from analog to digital TV took place last Friday, and if you're like most people, you weren't aware of it. But if you are poor and/or stupid, you've probably had a rough weekend.
"Nearly 700,000 calls were received by a federal hot line this week from people confused about the nationwide switch from analog to digital TV broadcasts that occurred Friday.
About a third of the calls were about federal coupons to pay for digital converter boxes."
Does that really say, "federal coupons for digital converter boxes?"
"The largest volume of calls came from the Chicago area..."
No surprise there. Obama's been educating Chicagoans for years. The rest of America has a long way to go to catch up.
The shutdown of analog broadcast TV signals was originally slated for Feb. 17, but the date was delayed to June 12 after Obama urged Congress to postpone the switch because he feared that too many Americans who rely on analog TV sets to pick up over-the-air channels wouldn't be prepared.
Detroit, where liberalism has reigned for decades as the local economy and school system has continued to worsen, was probably the next most effected city by the switch.
"(T)he anxiety of the switch was heightened as viewers prepared to watch that night's Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
"They were frantic," said Michael Gottlieb, director of the Michigan DTV help line, which received about 1,000 calls. "I can't tell you how many people we talked off the ledge."
Blacksphere, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite daily voices on Obama, sums it up well:
(Excerpt) Read more at patriotroom.com ...
Hard to believe that many folks are clueless, but....
I don’t care for digital myself, but I don’t watch much tv either. I find it is like watching video back in the modem days with breaks in the audio/video stream. Such as life I guess.
That’s just way too damn bad...imagine all them Democratic imbeciles can’t get their government news from the broadcast MSM now...it’s just a cryin’ damn shame....
Maybe Michael Moore was right, maybe we are the stupidest people on earth...
These folks couldn't find their way out of a paper bag without government intervention.
That is to say, “democrat voters”
They’ve only been told about it for a YEAR!
“...and school system has continued to worsen, was probably the next most effected city...”
The writer should examine his own material before throwing stones.
Totally clueless and looking to the government to make things better at someone else's expense.
Idiocracy was a work of non-fiction.
How would these people see Charlie on TV???? Must have been the entire audience for either MSNBCLSD of cBS calling in.
An incorrect noun/verb relation is equivalent to panic over television? Or a President who has paid billions of dollars for converter coupons for the poor? Good call. And thanks for the edit.
Is anyone else disgusted that there were actually freaking HOTLINES set up to handle angry folks calling in???? Seriously? If all you do is watch tv all day, sucking up the free stuff handed to you by the government, how the hell did you miss the info regarding FREE converters for your government provided living space?
It’s hard to imagine anyone not knowing. Many stations had ‘crawlers’, occasionally running at the bottom of the screen, for at least a year.
What’s the problem? If you need a converter, it’s because you can’t pick up the alphabetnetworks. No loss there.
Truth be told...I don’t think they’re stupid...bottom line they probably don’t want a “coupon” for a converter box, they probably just want the government to provide them for free.
What I really enjoyed this weekend was seeing the crawl on the broadcast networks giving people what numbers to call if they were having troubles now that the analog signal was turned off. It apparently never dawned on them that anybody having issues COULDN’T SEE the crawl.
We still had one or two analog broadcasts here showing nothing but how to hook the box up and who to call with problems. It was pretty funny.
“It’s hard to imagine anyone not knowing. Many stations had ‘crawlers’, occasionally running at the bottom of the screen, for at least a year.”
Problem...no read the ingles....
Most analog stations had been running a scroll at the bottom warning people about the conversion for months.
If people didn’t see it they don’t watch TV. If they did see it and didn’t know they either can’t read (in which case they need to learn to instead of watching TV) or were too stupid to care.
Screw em.
They should have had a coupon cutoff on live day too far as I’m concerned.
Remember, these people are allowed to vote.
Like my grandfather used to tell me; “Stupid is supposed to hurt”.
And obviously they did vote last November.
I’m sure that giving people money to buy a TV, is somehow what the Founding Fathers would have intended.
Les Nessman: “The phones are out, shouldn’t we call somebody?”
These people were referred to as ‘at risk’ by the fed govt.
At risk for not being able to watch their friggin’ tv!
And for those you cable watchers, there have been continous-not continual- info ads on analog tv since early this year. Couldn’t miss them even if you tuned in once in awhile. So we/the tv stations had to wait an additional 4 months so that the same problem would happen.
You just cannot help some people. It’s probably a law up there with Murphy’s.
I chose not to convert. I think I gained about 20 IQ points too, maybe more.
I thought it was hilarious hearing about husbands who told their wives that they had to go buy a large flat screen TV because of the digital switch even though they had Cable, DirecTV or Dish.
I went to DMV last month to get my picture updated and they had signs up all over the place warning of the switchover, but they all had the Feb 17 date. Government in action.
I’m neither poor, nor stupid. I just refuse to pay for TV that still subjects me to commercials. Bought my converter box last July in preparation for February.....no conversion. Oh well, it’s here and I’ve been ready for a year.
Did ACORN have any outreach programs?
Many people don’t sign up for food stamps, kidcare, allcare, schip, Sec8, etc.
They are “at risk” and ACORN type groups are funded to do “outreach” and sign up these people by any means necessary.
How much simpler can they make it for the 2-digit I.Q.’s?
(See my tagline.)
I know - the degree of idiocy is unreal. And even cable watchers got the scrolling info regarding the change over - so no one missed it - if they watched a day of tv they knew about it but as usual, waited for Uncle Sam to do it for them
I’ve been looking forward to June 12 for a long time—since the extension in February, as a matter of fact. It’s great having silence in the house! My kids looked at me sadly and whined softly like dogs, but I said in a shocked tone, “Cable! A converter box! Are you kidding? We can’t afford extravagances like that. Who’s going to pay for it? I have a $200 electric bill coming due, and a gas bill, and the water bill, the community association dues, and . . .” Pretty soon they shut up and went to read something.
Last night we watched “Master and Commander” together. My favorite movie. My teenage son loved it, and it provided an opportunity for me to instruct him on the history of the Napoleonic Wars and tell him a bit about Nelson. Next stop, the library to get the books on which that wonderful movie was based. See how it works?
My pleasure. However, if I may nitpick, your noun/verb relation was fine. You just used the wrong verb (”affect” would have been the proper choice). Furthermore, I was not making an equvalence; your post, however, referred to school performance and, well, the rest is history...
: )
You can watch free tv on your computer. Thousands of channels. Usually a one-time $25 cost.
I watch all most of my favorites from the web, including the older shows like Brisco County Jr, Red Dwarf, LA Dragnet, etc... There are site from all over the world that offer tv shows on the web.
All Obama voters.
I'm sure there is southern hemisphere action from Brazil and Australia during our wintertime, plus the American GT, Trans-Am and USAC classes.
What kind of OS and computer gear do you need for watchable streaming?
I have an HP dv9320us 1.8Ghz with 2GB of RAM running Vista. I also had the low end Verizon DSL. I just run things through the web browser. I recently upgraded to the 3Mbps package so up to 2 people can watch different shows. I also use my TV as a second monitor sometimes.
Try these websites:
www.findinternettv.com/FullEpisodes.aspx
www.fancast.com
www.hulu.com
bk.pplive.com/ This on is Chinese but has American shows.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.